A Seventh Path: Path of Swords
by A Dyslexic Writer
Summary: One of Rin's experiments goes wrong, throwing her and Shirou's souls into another world to be reborn. Finding themselves in a world with a new form of mystic energy and where the influence of Gaia is less than a tenth of its old strength, Rin has found herself in paradise. Shirou however sees a world of conflict, deceit, and monsters wearing human skin... same old, same old.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing and no money was made.**

* * *

Thinking was hard...

How hard it was to focus when your senses were nothing but a blur. Time seemed to hold no meaning to him as he simply flouted listening to a steady beat that he was pretty sure was a heart, though other less comprehensible noises were mixed in.

He had started to piece things together. It was a slow process since his brain was still developing, making it more difficult to think, but he eventually figured out where exactly he was. Then he immediately wished he could forget. After all, most people would not like to find that they had suddenly gone from a full grown adult to an unborn child still in its mother's womb. Disturbing was one way to describe it.

In order to distract himself from thinking about what that meant and the possibilities he was going to have to face in the rapidly nearing future, he spent what little focus he had on his memories, trying to figure out how exactly he had gotten into this mess.

Emiya Shirou. That had been his name before. He had been a magus... or at least he had been an apprentice magus. And he couldn't help but think how the more traditional magi would probably find everything he was going through fascinating, as it showed the differences between the identity of the soul and one's own cognitive limits. His memories of his last life were all in check, but he still found forming a train of logic difficult with his still developing brain. New connections had to be made. He had to reassess all his old memories. Something that he found extremely difficult to do when one had the attention span of a zero year old.

He was already getting away from himself. Shirou was supposed to be thinking of how he got here, not the nature of ideas.

He took a step back to his previous thoughts, his status as a magus.

His magus training had been a shaky one, being that he had pretty much been left alone in it up until the Holy Grail War. It was only then that he gained his first real teacher, Tohsaka Rin. The two of them had gone through a pretty literal interpretation of hell together, and had emerged from it as what Shirou would consider to be pretty close friends. Though they had been the same age, Rin was infinitely better at almost all branches of magecraft and had seen fit to instruct him some from time to time, when she wasn't too busy with her own studies.

Rin studied under Zelretch, one of the few True Magicians, known his control of the Kaleidoscope, or the power to interact with parallel worlds. Yes, that was where things went wrong. Off course. He should have known.

Rin had gotten into her head that she could discover more about the true nature of the Root, the core of all existence, or the Prime Mover as some would call it, by projecting across several hundreds of worlds at the same time, taking in everything that was the same about them while rejecting everything that made them different. After all, all worlds were trying to be like the Root, and only their imperfections should differ from it.

She had roped Shirou into helping her out with the experiment. He was supposed to be her anchor to make sure that she didn't lose herself in the attempt. Seems like rather than anchoring her to their own reality, he had simply been dragged through whatever gateway she had opened with her. Still didn't explain why he was now an unborn baby, but he must have lost his body along the way.

Shirou vaguely wondered why he wasn't more upset about this revelation. Perhaps it is because the chemicals that cause stress were not yet in production in his unborn body. Or maybe he was even more overly optimistic than even Archer thought. More likely it was because he had made peace with himself a long time ago in order so that he could put his life on the line for the greater good.

Frankly, he was just glad he appeared to be getting reincarnated as a human and not a bug. Though his own body was still in that stage of development where it hardly looked like a human baby, he still had access to 'Structural Analysis' the ability to transfer the prana from his own body into something in order to gain insight into its nature. It told him that his mother was human, though that was not the most surprising thing that it told him.

He still had his 27 magic circuits from his past life, and they seemed relatively unchanged by the transfer. The only main difference with them was that they were no longer connected to his eyes and ears, so he would need to work with them a bit in order to regain his ability to reinforce those organs. But right beside those magic circuits were something else. Something that Shirou didn't have a word for.

They were sort of like his circuits, only wider and much more numerous. When he first scanned them, he nearly went into shock, believing that he had somehow grown over three hundred additional high quality circuits. But before he could celebrate, he noticed that the energy inside of them was different.

He still didn't know what exactly it was, but it was different than the Od from his magic circuits. If he compared them, he would say that prana was an element, something that was pure, while this new energy seemed to be a compound of some kind, made up of two different energies. In his mind he was relating prana to iron sand while this new energy was something more akin to salt.

With the wider channels, the energy seemed harder to control, but there was so much of it and it went to virtually every part of his body, even parts where it was completely useless. He experimented with using this new energy to reinforce his body instead of his old Od and found that he could easily do so. This opened up all kinds of possibilities in the future, as he could focus all of his Od into his weapons without having to waste any reinforcing his body, maximizing the effectiveness of his reality marble.

His mother also seemed to have these different circuits.

Shirou wondered if they were a common thing of this world or if they were restricted to a minority of bloodlines, like with the magic of his old world. More than likely, Rin would also have them and be having a field day experimenting with their limits. He'd probably have to find her before she got herself into too much mischief.

She always said that he was always looking for trouble, which was true, but Rin was the one who actively caused trouble, usually for her own amusement or to take advantage of it. He doubted she would stop just because she was a newborn child. If anything that might make it worse. She had always been a little jealous of Illya's super childish appearance allowing the girl to get away with whatever she pleased without even having try that hard.

Though he could hardly search for her at the moment. He would need time. Time to be born and time to get his bearings. Hopefully people were wrong about the horrors of birth.

* * *

Sparks flew as a small child held a kunai against a grindstone, sharpening it to a razor's edge.

Most people would cry out in shock to see the four year old boy sitting alone in the large forge house working with dangerous equipment in order to produce weapons, but for Shirou, it was his new way of life.

He still thought of himself as Emiya Shirou. Even after four years the name Ena Kuroshi just didn't feel right. He didn't resent the people who gave him this new life, but they didn't hold the same kind of place in his heart that Kiritsugu did. Though that was hardly fair, since he knew Kiritsugu for much longer.

The Ena family had been a family of blacksmiths that lived in Konoha for a few generations, making their living selling weapons to the ninjas who ran the extremely large city village. They had seemed like nice enough people, and Shirou probably would have gotten along with them very well. Sadly fate was not a kind mistress.

Around a year after his birth, disaster struck. A giant demon that bore a resemblance to a fox with nine tails appeared in the village, killing hundreds.

The Ena family had all been gathered in one place, all the parents, cousins, siblings, uncles and aunts, grandparents, every last one of them was crushed underneath the beast. Shirou himself only survived because of his reinforced body protecting him. On that day, three years ago, he yet again became an orphan.

With no extended family stepping forward to claim him, he had been shipped off to the orphanage after that, but he didn't stay there for long. As soon as he was able to move around independently, he would slip out of the orphanage to return to his family estate, a fair sized complex with eight bedrooms and a disconnected warehouse which acted as a forge. It was less because of any connection to his new blood than it was to the memory of his old life. He supposed he wanted to fill the home with his friends like he did back during the Holy Grail War.

The orphanage was so overcrowded because of the fox demon, that no one noticed the quiet boy's disappearances. He would go to the forge and work with the metal, using the insight proved to him by his Unlimited Blade Works, shaping weapons that he would then sell for a bit of money.

At first, the shopkeeper was horrified that he was doing these things, but shortly after he just accepted it. It was better than what some orphans did in tough times, and the village was always in need of more blacksmiths. Shirou moved out of the orphanage at the age of three, and simply took care of himself.

After sharpening the kunai, he checked the wrap on the grip, and did a quick Structural Analysis in order to make sure there was no problems before placing the finished produce with dozens of others. "Well, there's that order finished." He mumbled to himself as he stood up, stretching a bit. "Should probably start on lunch."

Packing away his tools, Shirou left the forge in order to go back to the man house, washing himself off before reaching for pan and cutting board.

The Village was an interesting place from an architectural standpoint. Several of the larger buildings in the village were built using the Wood type jutsu of the Senju ninja as their base giving them a look that he hadn't seen anywhere in his old life, where as other less important buildings were made with either Earth type jutsu or by normal modern building techniques. So while electricity existed, the world had a much older feel to it.

As Shirou added the cut bits of potato and carrots into his pan to cook alongside the fish, a voice rang out through the house, "Something smells good! Hey kiddo, how much longer till lunch!?" A scarred man said from the door to the room. Even though he was off duty, he still wore his ninja headband and his vest.

"Only a few more minutes, Kibato-san." Shirou called back to him.

This man was not Shirou's house mate of any sort. He was more like a short term renter. Most of the higher ranked ninja that went off on A rank missions could be out for weeks at a time, and would probably be only around and out of the hospital for a day or two a month. As such, keeping their own place of residence was just a pain in the ass.

The Hokage was the one who suggested that Shirou allow these off duty ninja to stay at the Ena house. It was a way of making some more money, gave Shirou some company, and allowed for there to be adults pretty much always checking in on him.

Shirou actually enjoyed having them about, for the most part. Usually the ones who came to him were pleasant enough characters. It was amazing how many of them had cool hobbies and they were always willing to share a few of their stories. There was even an entire branch of ninjas dedicated to the art of field cooking and Shirou was a more than willing student. Though at the moment there was only Kibato Hibaki who was kind of like the perverted uncle that everyone has.

"Going out somewhere, Pinku-chan?" Kibato asked Shirou as he packed together the finished kunai into a wheeled crate. Shirou practically cringed at the nickname. It was one thing that he tried to keep out of his mind at all times, though the ninjas seemed to has spotted it as his weak point.

Ena Kuroshi had been born with bright pink hair. Everyday Shirou cursed his E rank luck. He didn't consider himself to be one of those guys who prides himself on his appearance. He was pretty sure he was fairly unattractive and rough looking in his previous life, but to end up with bright pink hair? It stung something furious as he imaged Archer laughing at him. Besides that his appearance was mostly unchanged, he even had the same golden eyes as before.

"I'm just making the delivery to the Tendou shop." Shirou said, trying to control his reaction to the nickname.

"Really? Make sure you say hey to that Tenten girl while you're over there. That little girl's got it bad for you. Trust me I can tell. And given how she looks just like her mother there is pretty good chance that by the time you're my age..." Shirou didn't listen to the rest, he was already out the door and closed it behind him before he had to hear what exactly Kibato thought he should do to a girl that was young enough to be his daughter. Shirou had a hard time thinking of himself as being four years old. Most people had a hard time believing it.

Besides, he was pretty sure that Tenten viewed him more as extended family. The girl was really nice and cheerful, and very interested in the weaponry Shirou worked with, but that was all. She was too young to have any romantic interests.

The Tendou Shop was not really a shop, not to any civilians anyways, it only ever served ninjas and trainees and was almost entirely subsidized by the central governing body of the Village. It held everything from tents and sleeping bags all the way down to dish ware and throwing knives. Though at heart it was a place for ninjas to get their weapons repaired and replaced after missions.

It was a large building, not really decorated since it didn't need to attract attention, everyone who needed it knew exactly where it was and what it was. Three stores of various storage scrolls that contained nearly everything a ninja could need out on a mission.

Shirou knew how to make the storage scrolls, and had even used a few in secret, but in order to use them, you need chakra control. He was trying to keep the number of people who knew that he could do that to a minimum. Past habits told him that you should not let anyone know the cards in your hand if you can help it. Sure most of the ninjas were alright people, but not all of them. The ANBU were definitely not people to be trusted lightly. Besides, it would be hard to explain where an orphan boy from an entirely civilian family of blacksmiths learned all these things. Give it a few years and he could say he learned it from the ninja who frequented his house, or he could join the academy and say he learned it there. Till then best to keep secrets. People were already questioning where he had learned to shape metal, best not give them any ideas of what he could really do with a sword.

The moment he stepped into the Tendou Shop, pulling along his load, Tenten turned to him. The girl had been practicing throwing blunt kunai at a target set up ten meters away.

"Kuroshi-kun!" She shouted as she dropped the kunai she had been about the throw in order to greet him. Taichi Tenten was your average four year old girl, that is to say absolutely adorable. He brown hair was tied up into two tight buns on either side of her head and her large blue eyes were always full of energy.

"Good afternoon Tenten-chan. I see you're practicing hard." Shirou said, glancing over at the target. So far it seemed like most of her throws were missing, but time and practice would serve her well. It would be another two years before she even entered the academy and six years after that before she would be able to become a gennin, the lowest rank of ninja.

"Ah Kuroshi-kun, you've brought the latest shipment?" Taichi Tendou asked as he looked up from his place out the counter where he was working with a man. The elder Taichi had the same brown hair worn in a spiked ponytail though he didn't have his daughter's high energy.

"Yes Taichi-san." Shirou said, bringing the crate up to rest next to the counter.

"That's great, I'll be right with you once I'm finished with Kakashi here." Tendou said, turning back to the other man and adopting a rather guilty look.

Kakashi was a tall, lean ninja with gray hair that stuck up at an odd angle and a mask over his mouth. His headband was dragged down over his left eyes which really wasn't that uncommon of a sight. Ninjas losing an eye wasn't unheard of, but Shirou got an odd feeling that there was more to it than that.

Shirou could smell the mystical energies including both prana and chakra, and this man's energies had a strange mixture. It was something between an electric charge and a low burning ember, but the scents weren't mixing properly. It was almost as if there were two people there instead of one.

"I'm sorry Kakashi, I know I've tried in the past, but it just can't be done. I can put the pieces back together but it won't truly be whole. If you continue to try to use this, it's going to get you killed." Tendou said forcing his voice to be cold, though it was clear that he was deeply sorry.

"Yeah... I suppose you're right." Kakashi said as he reached out his hand and held up the hilt of a broken blade. His voice was actually a slight surprise. He was younger than he looked, probably only around nineteen. "I don't even know why I still have it... should have thrown the thing away along time ago."

Shirou froze the moment he saw the glint of steel. The Unlimited Blade Works reached out to the broken blade, taking in every aspect of it. He could practically feel the joy coming from his reality marble as well as the sadness.

It was a tantou blade, a fashion of short sword crossed with dagger that was popular in old japan, being used as the equivalent of a tactical dagger from later years. The process for forging the steel was different from any other chakra blade that Shirou had ever seen. And its history... it was on the brink of becoming a Noble Phantasm.

"Hakkō Chakura Tō..." Shirou said, unable to help himself. His reaction earned Kakashi's eye.

"You know of it?" He asked, sounding a little bit surprised.

"The weapon of Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang of the Leaf, its name comes from the white streak it leaves behind. Though the name actual misleading as it is a Chakra Blade that leaves a white streak and not a blade that leaves a streak of white chakra. The process of preparing the sand used in making chakra blades was changed in order to mimic the sages' senjutsu techniques of capturing natural energy. It's this energy that produces the white light, and since natural energy works in tangent to normal chakra, it is able to piece other objects that are reinforced by chakra." Shirou said, his mind wrapping itself around the blade. Somewhere deep down the boy knew he shouldn't be talking so much, but he couldn't help it. Even broken, it was a original sword that would have been a legend, not a copy made by the Holy Grail from the Throne of Heroes but an actual legendary weapon. Seeing such things was rare, even for someone like him, and he hadn't seen anything of this quality since his rebirth.

Kakashi's mask slide a bit as his jaw dropped and his visible eye widened considerably. "Oh wow... you know a lot about it. Any particular reason for that?"

"Huh?.. Oh... I..." Shirou stuttered, searching for an excuse. "Well... I admired Hatake Sakumo." He said weakly as he recalled the man's history through the blade. "People say that he was a coward but, he did what he did in order to protect the people. I think he was a hero." Kakashi seemed to stiffen a little at Shirou's words.

Kakashi's eye went back to the broken blade in his hand. "A hero huh..." He mumbled. His voice was so flat that Shirou had a hard time knowing what the man was thinking. But he realized that Kakashi was the son of Hatake Sakumo. He had been given Hakkō Chakura Tō after his father went into a depression and took his own life.

"Can... can I see it?" Shirou asked. He already knew everything there was to know about the broken sword, but he still had a desire to hold it. Kakashi looked back at him before slowly holding out the handle for Shirou to take. He could still feel the power and majesty of the dagger, the strength of the man who had once been considered the equal of the Fourth Hokage. His heart wept at seeing it broken. "Taichi-san is right. This blade is broken at its core. It can't be repaired." He said sadly. He looked up and saw the mixed feelings in Kakashi's eye, the feelings for his father. "But... I could reforge it."

"Kuroshi-kun, that isn't as easy as you might think." Tendou said looking down at the four year old boy. "This isn't your average blade, even master smiths have difficulty with making chakra weapons, and this tantou was a masterwork blade. This isn't like making iron kunai."

"No! Kuroshi-kun can do it!" Tenten shouted, making her presence known. "He's the best in the whole village! The whole world even! If anyone can it's Kuroshi-kun!"

"Sorry buttercup, but that's just it, no one can. Even the original maker could never manage to reproduce another blade like that one, and they were the kind of genius that only comes once every hundred years and dedicated their entire lives to the art." Tendou said, shaking his head as his daughter pouted angrily at him.

Shirou didn't listen to the side commentary. He was only looking at Kakashi, waiting for a reply. The gray haired young man started back at him for a few moments before shrugging. "I don't see the harm in letting you try. I was... just going to throw the thing away anyways." The man lied. He didn't seem to be that good at lying. He picked up the box containing the rest of the pieces and handed them to Shirou whose face lit up as he took them.

"I'll do everything I can to remake it as good as new." Shirou said, not able to contain his excitement. "Your father's blade will be made whole again."

* * *

 **Story isn't all that original, but hopefully I can do it well anyways and bring a new perspective to the table.**

 **Shirou and Rin are going to be a year older than Naruto and his group. So they would be in school with Tenten, Rock Lee and Neji.**

 **Since it is simply the way that Fate works, Rin is going to be the heiress of one of the clans, just like Shirou is always going to end up an orphan. So she is going to be the older sibling of either Hinata, Sasuke, Ino, or perhaps Shikamaru. Right now I'm leaning towards Hinata for reasons that would be spoilers if I said it.**

 **I haven't been writing much recently because I have been using the winter break to try out some new medication in a consequence free environment, and it isn't going very well. I'm probably going to have to start getting off of it.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Hm... he's late... later than me..." Kakashi mumbled as he sat on a stool on the Taichi shop. The gray haired ninja had showed up his normal half hour late for the appointed time to see what the young blacksmith had done to his sword, only to find that the boy had yet to arrive. "Should I be worried?"

"Nah, something's probably just holding him up. Kid has a problem that he just can't leave other people's problems alone. He usually ends up late to things." Tendou said with a shrug as he continued to polish an oversized sword.

"That's right! I'm sure there is a good reason that Kuroshi-kun isn't here yet! He isn't a useless tardy-pants like you!" Tenten shouted at Kakashi, being unreasonably angry for some childish reason.

"Hey, I had a reason... I was..." Kakashi started trying to defend himself, but Tenten cut him off.

"Liar! Liar liar pants on fire!" She shouted at the high ranking ninja who simply deflated under the assault. Tendou glanced up from his sword before looking back down.

"Don't worry, he'll be here. Kid's pretty mature for his age. And even though he is a genius of sorts, he has remarkably little pride. He won't try to hide his mistakes. Once he gets here, he will give you an honest apology for wasting your time and give you back the pieces of your..." Tendou started, but his daughter cut him off too.

"Kuroshi won't have failed! He will have done the greatest job ever!" Tenten shouted, stopping her foot on the ground and giving a deep pout.

"Yeah, and maybe the Akimichi clan will all start dieting." Tendou mumbled. He'd only believe it if he saw it. Up until now, Kuroshi had only been doing minor repair jobs and using molds to make kunai and throwing stars, which was already fairly impressive for a four year old. But there was a huge difference between that and actually forging swords, and an even greater gap between there and being a blacksmith good enough to forge chakra weapons of legendary status.

Before Tenten could say anything, the door opened up and the boy himself came in, gasping for breath while clutching a box to his chest. "Sorry... I'm late... The market... cooler broken and..."

Tendou waved him off. "Don't need to hear it. We know you get distracted."

"Kuroshi-kun!" Tenten shouted excitedly as she ran up to him and gave him a strong hug. "I knew you would come!"

"Wh...why wouldn't I?" Shirou said confused as he looked around the room and spotted Kakashi. A wide smile spread across his face. Not the kind of smile that someone who was about to give bad news had. "Kakashi-san, I got your sword for you."

Tenten immediately let go of Shirou so that she would be able to see the sword. Shirou put the box on the ground before opening it up and pulling out the sheathed blade. In his small hands, it actually looked like a full sized sword rather than a long tactical knife. Gasps filled the room as the four year old boy slowly drew the blade out of its sheath.

The flawless metal blade seemed to glow with a strong white light, each and every small movement leaving a trail of energy behind it as Shirou moved it carefully in front of him. Then, pulling out a raw ingot out of the box, Shirou tossed it up into the air before slashing through it with the blade, cleanly cutting the metal bar in two as if it had been nothing but air as a long white streak came from the blade.

The sword Tendou had been polishing slipped from his fingers and fell down onto his steel toed boots, crushing his foot as the piece of protective metal was driven into his toes. But the man didn't react, he simply continued to stare at the pale blade. "No way... It's not possible."

Shirou turned the tantou blade in his hand to hold the hilt out to Kakashi, who took it from him with half shaking hands. The gray haired ninja's eye was bulging out of its socket as he stared at the blade. "Its... I've never..." The blade was as good as new. Better than Kakashi himself had ever seen it.

Even before it had first ended up in the copycat ninja's hands, it had seen fifteen long years of hard use and was nowhere near its peak condition. The blade in his hand surpassed his memories. "I did the best I could. Some of the seals that were hidden inside of the handle still need to be redone. But the steel has should be about the same as when it was first forged." Shirou said with a smile.

"Well... you did a much better job than I was expecting." Kakashi said honestly, testing the weight of the weapon, finding it to be exactly as he remembered it. The pale white stream followed the blade no matter how he twisted it. "How much do I owe you?"

"Owe?" Shirou said tilting his head before his eyes widened as he realized Kakashi was taking about payment. He laughed a little to himself, scratching at the back of his head. "I actually didn't think about pay. I have no idea what this kind of job is worth. I was so wrapped up in the blade itself, everything else kind of slipped my mind." Shirou looked at the blade again. "Just use it well, and become a hero, just like your father."

Kakashi went into a solemn silence as the mention of his father, slowly taking the sheath and putting away the sword, keeping it upon just an inch so that its white light could stream out of the crack for a moment longer before closing it shut. "Becoming a hero is a tall order. But I suppose I could give it a try." The gray haired ninja said disinterestedly.

Shirou grinned until Tenten grabbed onto his sleeve and gave it a sharp pull. "Kuroshi-kun!" She shouted, looking him dead in the eyes with a killer pout that confused the boy. "I want one."

"Huh?" Shirou said, not comprehending what it was that the girl wanted.

"I want you to make me a sword. One just as good as that one."

"I don't believe it. I don't believe it." The shop owner said again and again as his daughter begged the young child for a sword. "It can't be. I just can't."

"I know what you mean... but shouldn't you get that foot looked at?" Kakashi said with a raised eyebrow, glancing down at the man's crushed toes as the boot turned a darker brown from the blood seeping into the leather.

"Wha?.. FUCKING HELL!"

* * *

Shirou eventually managed to get away from Tenten. Though he had pointed out that she was not supposed to practice with real swords until she was older and that she wouldn't need one until she was a full fledged ninja, she had still forced him to promise to make her one as a graduation present for when she graduated from the Academy.

He hoped she would simply forget about that... what were the odds of her remembering? She was only four and that was eight years away.

Looking inward, he found the chakra blade on his hill of swords, now reforged and whole, the way it was meant to be. Kakashi had no idea. That blade he held was far greater than it had ever been in life.

Shirou had used his magecraft to restore the sword. He used a paradox called the Ship of Theseus Paradox in order to maintain the identity and memory of the steel as he reshaped it. The story was based around the ship of an ancient hero, that was stored and maintained. Over time, all of the wood that made it up rotted and had to be replaced. The paradox asks if, after the last plank of wood has been replaced, is it truly the same ship? And if not, then at what point does it cease to be the same ship?

Though the theory, the ideal form of the blade was maintained. In the same way that iron is folded again and again to increase purity, Shirou slowly blended the idea of the sword that existed within his Unlimited Blade Works with the physical weapon, it until the ideal form and the physical form matched. And then, at that moment, the blade transcended and became a Noble Phantasm. Shirou was actually torn from giving it back to Kakashi. Part of him wanted to keep the original blade for himself.

It had been a slow process, much slower than tracing, but it was still much faster than actually forging the sword from scratch. The original blade took over three years to complete. And even if he had, it wouldn't have been the same sword, and therefore wouldn't have become a Noble Phantasm.

Shirou was grateful to Kakashi for providing him that chance. He had never been allowed to hold onto shards of a weapon that should have been a legend. He had always believed that he would use the Ship of Theseus Paradox in order to obtain a Noble Phantasm, one that did not suffer from the inherent flaws of his Tracing. But shards of ancient legendary weapons are far too rare, and any magus who got their hands on one would guard it with their lives.

In Shirou's mind, the chance to test his theory was all the payment he would ever need. The magus back in his old world would have made him pay a king's bounty in order to simply observe the fragments for a day. Kakashi had no clue what he was holding onto, believing them to just be a keepsake from his father.

The method wasn't very practical. He would need shards of legendary weapons in order to reforge them into true Noble Phantasms, but it was interesting and could one day be highly useful if he found himself fighting against powerful opponents, like the Kages. Taking their swords and transforming them into pseudo-divine weaponry.

Shirou stopped in his thoughts about possible applications of this new method when something caught his eye.

Three people stepped out of the Village central building's library branch. Two adults and a child around his age, all three of them looked to be of the Hyūga Clan, dark brown to raven hair, plaid clothes with long sleeves, the adults having their headbands around their foreheads, and the signature white, featureless eyes of the bloodline. One of the two adults, a tall man with long brown hair, was carrying a stack of around a dozen scrolls towards a coach.

None of this was all that strange. The thing that caught his eye was the young girl, or more specifically, her hair. The black hair was pulled up into twin ponytails one either side of the girl's head, the hair was so long that it still came down to her shoulders. It was the hairstyle that Rin had worn back in their teenage years.

He remembered being a bit surprised when she dropped the hair style when they were both starting into their twenties, letting her hair fall down her back. The conversation about it was a bit of a blur though. She said something about the old hair style having its charms, but that it was becoming too childish for her. Shirou couldn't exactly remember how the rest of the talk went, but it ended up with him being kicked so hard between the legs that he walked funny for the rest of the week. The memory of the attack on his sword caused him to wince.

The hairstyle was something rather iconic of Rin, and he hadn't seen anyone else use it since he had been reborn. The age seemed about right, and she carried herself in a rather proud fashion. Shirou's suspicions had been aroused. However, none of this was concrete evidence.

He checked the air for her prana, but didn't find it.

That wasn't surprising. Unlike chakra channels which always seemed to be putting out at least a little energy, magic circuits didn't waste. No self respecting magus would let their Od leak out as they went about their daily business, so unless Rin used a spell, any spell, while he was within around three miles of him, Shirou wouldn't be able to lock onto her. It was the reason they could go to the same school for years without even realizing that the other was a magus.

With the option of reading her prana out the window, Shirou checked the girl's chakra. He was immediately made even more sure than before when he got a lock on the scent.

It was 'average'.

Usually, when he was sensing chakras, he was getting a feel for what type of chakra they had affinity with. Different chakra's holding different scents based on their affinity. So for something to have an 'average' smell meant that it held not just one or two, but all five affinities.

It was not something he had seen in any ninja before. And with how similar chakra affinities were to the elemental affinities in magic, it became another reason to believe that this girl was indeed Rin.

Among all the magus Shirou had ever met, only one had ever had all five elemental affinities, and that was Rin. Such people were often called 'Average Ones', and were always sought after by other magus.

The three individuals climbed into the coach and were horses were pressed forward, taking them up the road and towards the Hyūga complex. The Clan's complex was a large section of land within the borders of the Village. It was far enough away from the main village, that even if Rin had used her magecraft there, he wouldn't have been able to detect it. It had been so long without him detecting her magecraft, that he had assumed she had been born in a different village. He felt like an idiot for not looking more.

The reborn swordsman started running in the direction the coach was going in, following the scent of chakra. It was about time for their four year separation to come to an end.

Man, Rin was going to be pissed that he took so long.

* * *

Danzou was quickly giving out orders to his ANBU units to try to stop the spread of rumors, though he worried that it would be a lost cause. It had taken less than an hour for news of the return of the White Fang's Sword to its former glory.

The old ninja didn't waste time questioning how this had happened or where the child had come by the knowledge of how to do it. The only question was what he needed to do.

A blacksmith that was able to create swords on that level was invaluable to the village. He could easily remember when the Kiri village was at its height. The seven swordsmen of the mist, most of them were hardly special as far as ninja went, but their blades pressed them into a whole nother level. In the hands of a skilled master, a sword like those could raise an individual who only had as much chakra as your average Chunin and let them hold their own against even a high ranking Jounin.

If one took the seven legendary swords Kirigakure possessed out of the equation, they would drop from being perhaps the most powerful village to being a joke.

If word got out to the other nations that a genius blacksmith had been born, one who could forge swords of legends at the age of four years old, then assassins would flock to him in order to try to kill the boy before he could reach his full potential and produce his masterpiece, a weapon that would no doubt cement their village's position as the greatest village for years to come.

It had came as a pleasant surprise to Danzou to find that the Hokage had already taken steps to insure the boy's safety and give the child the chance to practice his art. Sarutobi Hiruzen had not only declared himself to be the boy's guardian, letting him continue to live at his forge, but had also convince the child to turn his home into a hotel for off duty ninja. There was not a single day where at least one high ranking ninja wasn't watching over the boy, and since it wasn't counted as a mission, there was not the usual attention drawn by such a heavy guard detail.

Perhaps the Third Hokage was a better leader than Danzou gave him credit for, if he had already noticed the boy's importance to the village.

However, the boy's talents were being wasted. Before reforging the White Light Chakra Sword, he had been only using his skills to mass produce kunai and throwing stars, only doing the odd repair on more advanced weapons from time to time.

Perhaps this was all part of a cover while he performed his more advanced training in secret. But he was still a wasted resource if the village didn't use him properly.

While the boy might not have been ninja material like Uchiha Itachi, the influence his swords might bring could last over generations. Making him arguably more valuable than even the Uchiha genius.

Danzou was already devising a way to make commissions from the boy in order to encourage the advancement of his skills. The old man would have to make this his top project.

* * *

 **Since the chapter introducing Rin will have to explain quite a bit of what she has been up too and her view of the world, I'm holding off on that until the next chapter for length reasons. So I decided to add something from Danzou at the end here instead of starting it up.**

 **You might disagree with my choice, but I don't feel like making a precedence of having 10K long chapters. Best if people don't expect much out of me.**

 **Sooner or later, Shirou is going to have to start hunting Mist Swordsmen in order to get their weapons.**


	3. Chapter 3

Shirou stood in the middle of a large wooded area that was a far distance away from the main path leading up to the Hyūga's complex, pondering what the best course of action was. It wasn't as though he could just walk up to the front gate and ask to see Rin. First of all, that wouldn't even be her name. Second, from what Shirou had heard from a female ninja who stayed at his house after having had a long mission of one of them, that the Hyūga Clan weren't known for accepting visitors. The woman said a lot of other nasty things about them, but Shirou chose not to focus on those.

He wasn't even sure if the girl really was Rin. He would have to actually check and see if it was her somehow, and for that he would have to sneak in. A job that seemed rather daunting as he slowly took stock of the Clan's defenses.

The Hyūga's territory was something akin to a castle, with all of the Clan living inside of a guarded area surrounded by walls. So there were over a hundred of them, all together in that little space, each of them having the famous 'Byakugan eyes', a sort of mystic eye that could allow them to see pretty much everything in all directions by detecting residue natural energy. Such a thing would have been jewel or even rainbow rank mystic eyes back in his old world. Not something that is easily tricked.

Not to mention the countless seals and physical traps that were scattered around the compound. Who the hell were they trying to keep out, an Assassin Servant?

"I wish Rin was out here instead of in there. She could tell me how to bust in." Shirou said with a sigh. He wasn't very good at stealth, never really needed to be. Stealth was rarely an option against powerful magus's detection methods. Nor was it all that useful if one was slaughtering the undead.

He ran though his list of swords, but couldn't find anything that would be of any help... not if he didn't want to kill everyone there anyways. "What I need isn't a sword, but a shield, or cloak that can protect me from their eyes. At least long enough to find Rin."

Shirou's mind drifted back to the Shroud of Martin. The Holy Shroud did have the ability to keep in his own energies while rejecting outside influence. The red coat would get the job done.

It would be costly though. Shields and armor were always more expensive for him to trace than weapons. A Holy Shroud was not just some piece of enchanted fabric. It was comparable to a low rank Noble Phantasm in complexity. Then he would also have to expend the cost of tailoring it to the size of this new body, as the coat that fit him just fine when he was two meters tall won't fit so well now that he was barely over one. He could do it, just like when he changed his swords into arrows, but it was harder for him, since the Shroud wasn't a blade to began with.

All together, it would probably take well over half of his available prana to pull it off, and that was without reinforcing it, which hopefully wouldn't become a problem.

If this had been in his old world, he would have rejected the idea by now. Maintaining the trace would eat up what was left of his energy in just a few minutes. But it was still possible in this world.

Through some experimentation, Shirou realized that the presence of Gaia was much weaker in this world of ninjas. This didn't have much effect at all on the cost of creating his traces, since that is done within the bounds of his reality marble. However, the amount of power required to continue to maintain his creations had drastically decreased.

So where he used to be able to hold a mundane sword for about an hour in his old world, now he could sustain one for over a day, with the rate in which he recovered his prana exceeding the cost to the one sword. He couldn't manage it for more than a day because his child's body required sleep, and the sword vanished while he was sleeping. Keeping a Noble Phantasm traced couldn't be done indefinitely, but even one hour with a monster of a weapon like Caliburn isn't anything to scoff at.

"Might as well get to work now." Shirou said, taking a breath and closing his eyes as he prepared himself mentally to maintain the trace.

'I am the bone of my sword.'

'Steel is my body and fire is my blood.'

The first two lines of his aria echoed in his head, helping him focus. The idea of the cloth armor didn't mesh well with the words, but in the end, Shirou still got a hold of the idea and started to recreate and alter it.

"Trace On." He said under his breath, his magic circuits humming to life as they brought forth the modified Holy Shroud. He felt it weighing on him and he opened his eyes, taking stock of what he had managed to create.

Since he had to alter the Shroud anyways, Shirou went ahead and made some modifications. He started with a hood in order to make sure that his head was also hidden from the Byakugan eyes, and he decided to change the color to a dark blue. Like hell was he going to run around looking like Archer. Not if he could help it. It was bad enough that sooner or later his hair was going to go white, he didn't need to dress like the prick.

"Looks like it worked. Guess it's time to test it out." Shirou said, reinforcing his legs with chakra and taking to the trees, using all the skill he possessed to avoid all the traps and making his way towards where he smelled 'Rin'. He gave a little prayer that the Holy Shroud really would protect him from their eyes. Otherwise he was about to get into a very awkward position.

* * *

Hyūga Hakaku moved through the main training hall of the Hyūga complex and into the sakura garden. The proud man held himself tall as he went, his jaw set, his white eyed gaze steady. His long brown hair pulled into a ponytail hardly stirred from his controlled moments.

Hakaku was a man on a mission, one given to him by the old head of the Clan. He was to train the children of the main family branch in the Hyūga's art of Taijutsu, showing them how to make full use out of the family eyes and the Gentle Fist. As a member of the branch family, such a duty was the highest honor he could have received.

At least, it would be, if it wasn't for one of the children.

"Hikaru-sama. Your Taijutsu lessons shall be starting soon. Please go and prepare yourself," he said as he looked down at the small girl who sat on a rock bench near the edge of the pond. She had a scroll opened up on her lap and three reference books spread out around her. It was nothing short of remarkable just how much that girl read. Most four year olds wouldn't even be capable of reading.

"Hm... is it really that time already," Hyūga Hikaru said, her voice rather disinterested. She didn't even bother to look up from the scroll that she was slowly unwinding at a steady pace. "Very well, I will join you after I am finished with this scroll. Please, don't wait on me."

The older Hyūga twitched slightly at being simply brushed off by the child. "Hikaru-sama, need I remind you of your agreement with your lord father? You..."

"You needn't remind me of anything. I remember, and I will do the Taijutsu training, after I am finished with this scroll." Hikaru said, purposefully interrupting the man. Acting as though he didn't matter. "If you have a problem, then go ahead and try to take it up with Otou-san again. I know how well that will turn out for you but you've never seem to learn."

It wasn't long until the man was doing just that, stomping away in frustration, and grumbling under his breath about how the girl's father would put her in her place.

"Baka." The girl said with a shake of the head. "Honestly, this clan is full of idiots."

Rin, aka Hyūga Hikaru, didn't exactly like the clan she had been reborn into.

It wasn't for the reasons most sensible people from her world would have disapproved of them. Things like inbreeding, using cursed marks to basically enslave branched family members in the name of keeping their family secrets, or the way that they locked themselves away from the rest of the world. Frankly, all those things weren't too uncommon among magus. If anything, the measures that they took would be considered too lax by magus standards.

Nor did she particularly dislike her family itself. Her father and grandfather had sticks up their asses, but that was too be expected for any figurehead of an important family. Her mother was nice, a rather peaceful woman, though she was a little too quick to try to please her stepfather for Rin's liking. And her little sister... well... she completely adored her cute little Hinata-chan. Every muscle in her heart always pulled tight for the little girl. She was just so cute, and with her timid features, gentle voice, and her raven hair which held a blue tint. The girl reminded her so much of Sakura. It made her want to protect the girl at all costs.

No, the thing that annoyed her about them was something completely different. "Give them a pair of nearly divine mystic eyes, peerless control of the gateways for the mystic energy inside of their body, the a highly advanced energy transferring technique, and enough mystic energy to make even some Magicians raise an eyebrow, and what do they do with it? Punch things." She said, practically spitting the last words in disgust. "What a complete waste of time."

Rin had learned the gentle fist technique fairly quickly, but after learning it for use as an energy transmitting ability, she didn't really care to continue on with the different forms and attack patterns of the Hyūga family style. She would admit that it was a very well put together style, but it simply seemed like a waste of time when there was so much else for her to do. So many things for her to research, knowledge for her to apply. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Fuinjutsu, their relations to mystics and the theories of Thaumaturgy. She didn't want to waste her time with the Clan's stupid military values, and she didn't care about their whole 'fate' issue.

Her current project was something that was bugging her, the need for kekkei genkai, blood line traits, in order to mold two different elemental chakra's together.

Reaching down to the ground around her, she picked up a leaf in each hand. Then, concentrated in order to transform the nature of her chakra, she sent it into the leaves.

The leaf in her right hand started to turn brown before flaking away into nothing, a sign of strong Earth type Chakra, while the leaf in her left hand started to gather dew and became wet from her Water type Chakra. But even after creating both chakras at the same time and performing the needed hand signs, she still couldn't produce Wood type Chakra.

She had already mastered more than two dozen jutsu of varying elements. With her knowledge of magecraft it was fairly easy. It was actually amazing to her how similar Ninjutsu and magecraft were. She practically laughed to herself when she discovered that the beginning level Ninjutsu, the transformation and basic clone techniques, were actually both just forms of projection with extremely similar theories and executions. The same beginner level skills taught to young magus to learn to control their Od outside of their bodies. However, she had not managed to produce one of these dual natured jutsu.

"What is it about the Senju that let them merge those two elements together. The fact that the converging of the elements happens during the hand signs, while holding half of the element in each hand would imply that the merging happens outside of the body. At that stage, nothing physically present inside of the body should factor in. So there has to be something different about the chakra before then." Rin said, closing her eyes and sighing. "I don't get it. I'd understand if it simply cost more to produce, since it lies outside of my origin, but I should still be able to do it... I need better research materials."

Rin nearly jumped as she heard a small laugh. "You haven't changed at all." She looked over in the direction of the voice, wordlessly turning on her Byakugan to search for who had been watching her, but found nothing. Not until a small boy dressed in a blue cloak dropped out of one of the trees, even then, she still couldn't see any of the chakra coils underneath the cloth. The boy looked up at her with a familiar grin. "It's been a while, Rin."

"Sh...Shirou?" Rin said. At first, the boy thought that her stutter had come from surprise. Then he noticed her holding her gut, and small giggles bursting out of her. "Oh Root Shirou, what's up with your hair? Could you not decide between red and white and just compromised?" Shirou's smile sank fast as she already started to tease him.

"You haven't changed at all." Shirou said again, this time without any sign of happiness, his chin falling down to his chest. He really should have been more prepared to face her. Was four years really long enough to make him forget what she was like?

But her laughter stopped and Shirou felt her arms thrown around him in a hug. One that made him stumble back a few steps as he struggled not to fall over. "I missed you, Shirou." She said, startling the boy.

"Yeah. I'm missed you too, Rin." He replied, patting her on the back.

* * *

Hyūga Hiashi wonder when it had happened. When the pride of his life and the brightest hope for the Clan's future had turned into his biggest headache. His first daughter, Hikaru, had never been normal, and he had watched her with pride as she developed in leaps and bounds.

Her intelligence was beyond anything anyone in the clan had ever heard of. She spoke her first words when she was only five months old. By the time she was a year old she was speaking in complete sentence. No one was sure who taught her how to read, but by the time she was two she head already studied nearly all of the clan's scrolls. He remembered coming home one day to find that she had somehow broken into the family vault and was reading the contains of their forbidden scrolls that were meant for none but the eyes of the Clan Head.

And it wasn't just in language that her abnormal intelligence showed itself. Her abilities with chakra also became apparent early on when she was just ten months old and was found using her Byakugan without instruction. She could produce a basic clone at just a year old. At one and a half year old she was freely shaping chakra. A month later they found out that she had successfully mastered the Earth chakra transformation. Three months after that, she had all five major chakra natures under control, making her the youngest person in history to ever achieve such a thing, beating the next youngest by over twenty years.

This wasn't even mentioning the extra chakra coils the girl had been born with. The seventy extra coils seemed mostly focused around her left arm, though they were present throughout her body. The energy inside of them was different from normal chakra, closer to pure yang energy, though different from even that. There was nothing in the clan records of anything like it before. They might not have been able to hold as much energy as her standard set, but what they did hold she could use with much greater accuracy.

Her cousin, Neji was a genius, Hikaru was a miracle. It seemed as though Hyūga clan was truly blessed with the most promising heiress in its history, but then, when she turned three and time had come for her to start training in the art of Taijutsu, the entire clan practically had a heart attack.

"Why would I waste my time with that?"

It wasn't as though she didn't have talent for Taijutsu. The few times they had managed to get her to practice, she had shown herself to have a good deal of talent in the art. She simply had zero interest in it. She denounced the clan's ancient fighting style as a waste of her talents.

At one point in time, her first instructor had tried to force her to practice, only to have a Genjutsu cast upon him before she decided to test Ninjutsu techniques on him, beating the man senseless. It took the man months to recover, and he was too scared to even approach the small girl again. Hiashi had no idea where she even learned a Genjutsu. Their clan had no such skill.

As time passed, it became more and more apparent that they had no control over the child. She did as she pleased, and believed what she wanted. For a child, she was extremely set in her beliefs and was skilled in the art of manipulating others, even without the use of Genjutsu. They had to resort to bribing her in order to get her to go to her Taijutsu lessons.

After Uchiha Itachi was made an official ninja at the age of seven, Hiashi's father suggested that they should give the four year old Hikaru the Genin test, in order to show the other clans the true talent of the Hyūga clan. But Hikaru simply refused to take the test. She said she would have her childhood before becoming an official ninja, and that she would not take the exam until she was twelve, even though she already satisfied the requirements for becoming a ninja. The idea of becoming a ninja and serving the village didn't seem to interest her much.

And even more problems lay on the horizon in the shape of her attachment to her little sister, Hinata. Ever since the second child was born, Hikaru doted on her little sister. Each morning she would be found to have snuck into Hinata's room in the night and would be hugging the smaller girl in her sleep, refusing to let go. She spent much of her 'valuable' time simply playing with Hinata, and telling her stories, teaching her various things like how to read or how to play simple games. If she ever found anyone being mean to the timid girl, she would exact vengeance upon them. It often got ugly.

This was worrying, since clan traditions were set so that only the one who would become the next head of clan would remain a part of the main family branch, while the other would be given the Caged Bird Seal.

With Hikaru's natural talents, there was no doubt that she would be the next head of clan, even if it wasn't for her little sister's too timid nature and lack of talent making her unfit. Hiashi shuddered to think what the child would do when the time came for the seal to be placed on 'her' Hinata.

It wasn't like Hiashi didn't sympathize. He didn't enjoy the thought of Hinata being branded. The girl was as kind and gentle as her mother. But this was the fate of those where were born into the clan. Even as the clan head, Hiashi couldn't work against fate.

At the moment, Hakaku, his daughters' third instructor, was complaining about Hikaru's lack of enthusiasm for the family's ways. The man had been appointed the job by Hiashi's own father out of trust for the man's personal loyalty to the clan, but the man's pride in the clan was leading to problems with the dismissive heiress.

They had already given into her demands to take her to the village's main library and check out chunin level scrolls for her in exchange for her participating in her Taijutsu training, but it seemed that even now she was trying to push at the boundary. She would decide where and when she fulfilled her end of the agreement. The girl was so strong willed.

"I will try to speak with her." Hiashi said, resigning himself to the fact that there was very little he could do.

Getting up from his office, he walked alongside Hakaku towards where they already knew his daughter to be. Closing his eyes, he tried to come up with an argument that would convince the strong spirited girl that it was important to practice her Taijutsu. He had yet to succeed in convincing her though, not after nearly a dozen attempts. Perhaps if he just focused on the importance of fulfilling her end of agreements instead of talking about Taijutsu directly.

His thought stopped however when he heard laughter coming from the garden. His daughter rarely seemed to laugh. She smiled often enough, especially when she was with her little sister, but even as a baby she rarely laughed.

"What!? How did that boy get in here!?" Hakaku said in shock. Hiashi looked himself to find that there indeed was a boy in the garden, sitting next to his daughter. The pink haired child looked slightly depressed as his daughter must have been laughing at his expense. Though there was a sort of smile on his face. "Don't worry. I'll get the guards to..."

"No." Hiashi cut Hakaku off. "Leave them be. Actually, we will rearrange the Taijutsu lesson."

Hakaku looked shocked. "But sir, your father..."

"I will speak with my father. Just go about your normal business." Hiashi said, dismissing the man. Then he turned his attention back to the boy with his daughter. He looked like an ordinary child. At first, the only remarkable thing about him seemed to be that he was in a location that he shouldn't have been, but as Hiashi focused his Byakugan eyes, he saw them.

They were not as large or numerous as with his daughter, and with the way that they lined up perfectly with the chakra coils around his central nerves, they were nearly invisible, even to Hiashi's eyes, but they were still there. Extra chakra coils, containing the same strange energy as the one's in his own daughter.

Two children, the same age, with these never before seen forms of chakra, somehow being drawn to each other. "Could this also be fate?" Hiashi asked himself, preparing to find out who this boy was.

* * *

 **I'm going to be the one to stick my neck out and say it. If people keep making a big deal about things in the stories being noncanon, writes are going to stop writing for them. I'm not necessarily talking about my own story, but just stories in general.**

 **Seriously, just if nitpick too much the writes are just going to decide to stop. Be glad you have anything to read at all, and if you have any helpful suggestions, feel free. Questioning what can and can't happen in X universe just annoys the writer who wanted to express creative freedom.**


	4. Chapter 4

"It wasn't that funny..." Shirou said, just a little downcast as his old friend laughed openly at him. After they got greetings out of the way, they started catching up, exchanging short stories about what they had been up too.

Shirou had made the grave mistake of sharing a story about when he was playing host a four man group of ninja who were throwing a party of sorts to celebrate that they all made it back alive. They all got impressively drunk and two of the female ones... Shirou cursed it. He cursed the fact that he was now in what girl's would consider an adorable child's body. He cursed his cursed the existence of alcohol. He cursed his E rank luck. And most of all, he cursed his own stupidity for sharing the story with Rin. What the hell was he thinking?

"I can't help it! You meet the weirdest people!" She laughed, holding onto her sides as she rolled backwards. They were sitting down next to each other underneath the sakura trees.

"What, you mean like you?" He grumbled, only to be punished by an open palm being shoved straight into his side. A small burst of chakra invaded his body and he cringed with the extreme pain.

"What was that, Shirou?" Rin said in her 'you have now irritated me' voice.

"No... nothing at all, Rin-chan." Shirou said, twitching as he gripped his side.

He shouldn't have dismissed the Holy Shroud. It would have protected him from such a cheap shot. Rin had told him to put it away, since she didn't want other members of her clan seeing that he had such an easy method of evading their eyes. Damn her logic making him drop his guard.

She claimed that she could tell anyone who saw him to 'go to hell', since she was the next head of the clan and had near absolute power over everyone, save for her father and grandfather. So no one would dare try to throw out anyone she said could stay, and even if they would question where they had met, they wouldn't ask her and probably wouldn't ask Shirou directly either. They would probably try to dig up that information themselves instead.

After a few seconds of Shirou resetting his own body to recover from the attack, he was caught off guard by Rin's next question. "Shirou... are you... angry with me?"

Shirou looked over at the girl on near shock, half believing that the to his system had caused him to start hearing things. But Rin's expression was rather uncomfortable. Her white eyes were carefully not looking at him, her shoulders were a bit tensed and she shifted her legs uncomfortably.

"Rin, you hit me all the time, it's not that big of a deal." The way she was acting didn't really match up with Shirou's picture of Rin.

"That's not what I meant!" Rin snapped before turning a little meek again. "I meant... about us being sent to another world. Being forced to go through childhood again. We died, Shirou. We died because of my experiment."

"Uh... huh..." Shirou said looking away into the distance. A slight pause went by as he lost himself in thought before Rin was on him again. He found himself gasping for air as he was pulled into a headlock by the short fused girl.

"That's it!? We died and all you can say about it is 'huh'! Just how stupid are you, Shirou!?" Rin growled at him as she did her best to pull his head from his shoulders.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Shirou cried, trying to get loose of the death lock. "I just didn't really think about it. I was more worried about how to find you than how we got here." Rin glared at him but let him go so that he could get back his breath. Rubbing the back of his neck, he added, "Besides, after everything we've been through together, when have I ever managed to stay mad at you?"

The reincarnated girl's eyes widened and a soft blush came to her cheeks at Shirou's words. She looked down and a soft smile spread across her face. "Shirou..." She said softly.

Sadly, Shirou had to ruin the moment. "You alright? I didn't say something wrong again did I?" Shirou said, his voice and confused eyes saying everything.

Rin twitched before she gave a heavy sigh. "No Shirou. I had just forgotten how monumentally dense you are. Thank you for reminding me that your skull is harder than steel." She said, leaving Shirou even more confused, and now on guard for any kind of attack that she might make in her anger.

But there was no anger in it. It was just the simple truth. Regardless how many women Emiya Shirou mistakenly charmed with his big heart, determination and impossible dreams, he had never once noticed any of it.

Rin personally blamed his lack of parenting. He had never actually seen a relationship, functioning or otherwise. He also never watched any TV, so he didn't learn anything there either. Even if that source tended to be more perverted, it would have been at least something. And now in a second life, he again was orphaned and grew up alone, surrounded by unmarried mercenary killers.

Sometimes she wondered if the boy even knew where babies came from. Maybe she should slip him some book on the subject. It would probably bring quite the blush to his face. The thought of that little prank brought a smile to her face and cheered her up quite a bit. Though she realized she would have a hard time getting the book herself, given that the Hyūga Clan never let her leave the grounds alone. They also didn't give her any money she could spend herself, so if she needed materials for her magecraft, she had to convince them as to why she needed it. Something that wasn't easy.

But that wouldn't be as much of a problem now. "Hey Shirou. I've been needing a few things for my magecraft. Would you mind going on a few errands for me?" Rin said sweetly, giving the boy a charming smile.

Shirou's face fell. He knew that this was coming. He took up both blacksmithing and being a sort of landlord in order to gather money for magecraft expenses. The problem was that Rin's style of magecraft was very... very expensive. But it was as expensive as it was powerful and useful. So the aged four year old boy bit down the bullet and simply asked, "What do you need?"

"You're such a good boy, Shirou." Rin giggled but then she changed her body language. Her legs uncrossed, and she shifted her shoulders in a sort of double take. It was a signal. Someone had crossed the edge of the Bounded Field she had set up to give them a bit of privacy.

It had only been a weak one. A simple ward meant to prevent anyone from listening in, but now that it was crossed, they needed to guard their tongues.

"Hello Otou-san. It is a nice evening, don't you agree?" Rin said, standing up to greet the man.

Shirou's first impressions of Hyūga Hiashi were mostly about the way he walked. It was so strange when compared to the various ninjas he had encountered. Most of them walked around with an air of being totally relaxed even though they were prepared to counter an attack at any given moment. Hiashi on the other had seemed tighter than a bow string as he walked with a noble step. This man was dangerous, and he knew it, and he knew that everyone else knew it. No need for misdirection. He would fool no one.

His face was hard, both cheekbones and jaw line being extremely distinct, and his white eyes were cold and focused. Though he seemed to share all the more basic traits like skin, hair and eye color with Rin, the father and daughter looked absolutely nothing alike. She must have taken after her mother, or else her appearance must have been more heavily influenced by her soul or magecraft than her genetics because this man wasn't winning any beauty contests.

"That it is. It is good to see you taking full advantage of it by playing outside." Hiashi said. Even though it was just simple conversation, his voice was still that of a stern father figure grudgingly giving his approval. It seemed almost weird. "Hikaru, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Rin smiled, she knew what her father was after. A name to allow him to begin digging around to try to explain his daughter's connection to the outside. They would give it to him, but no reason she couldn't have some fun first.

"I think you misunderstand, Otou-san." Rin said, puffing out her chest proudly. A sign that Shirou knew meant the Rin was about to be Rin. "Shirou-chan isn't my friend, he's my pet." She said with a completely steady voice while gesturing at the boy.

Hiashi's jaw dropped a little as the stern man couldn't believe what his daughter had just said. Shirou unfortunately could very much believe that she had said such a thing and was giving her an indignant look. It was a heavy hit to his pride.

Seeing his face, the girl pushed it a little harder. "Is something the matter, Shirou-chan." She even dragged out the 'chan'.

Shirou knew there was no recovery, so he simply counter attacked. "No, nothing is wrong. I am merely lamenting my misfortune of having such a cruel and unfair master." Shirou said, letting his face drop and playing the part.

Hearing the familiar line, Rin burst into a fit of laughter. She laughed so hard that she fell over and ended up holding her sides as tears rolled down her cheeks. It was even more shocking to Hiashi than the girl's earlier declaration of ownership of the boy.

Shirou smirked. He had won that particular battle. But he turned to the confused Hiashi. "Sorry. My name is Ena Kuroshi, though your daughter seems to have dubbed me Shirou. Please take care of me." Shirou said, giving a little bow.

Hiashi accepted the rather formal greeting in the middle of the strange burst of chaos. 'What is with kids these days?' Hiashi only returned the greeting with a nod before turning to his daughter. "I have decided to postpone your Taijutsu trying till tomorrow. Please, try to spend your afternoon productively."

"Ye..s of course, Otou-san..." Rin said, trying to control her giggles. "Shirou-chan, how about I introduce you to my imōto, Hinata." The boy didn't put up any resistance as she grabbed onto his arm and pulled him away.

Hiashi watched them go, and saw the Fūinjutsu barrier that had surrounded them go down, letting noise travel freely again. He had no idea where Hikaru had learned to make these barriers, and she wouldn't give him a straight answer even if he asked. Hiashi's father had once tried to forbid the girl from using them because of the dangers involved in any mistakes, but she simply ignored him. She rarely ever listened to the elder. It made several white eyes widen when she called the elder a 'cowardly old fool', straight to the old man's face.

"Ena Kuroshi." He mumbled to himself. He didn't know of any ninja clans called Ena, but that hardly mattered. He would need to find out everything he could about this boy. His habits, his family history, his ideals, and most importantly, how he had met his daughter. Maybe if he found out something about these strange chakra paths, he could divine just why it was that his eldest daughter was so rebellious.

The first place to stop would be the Hokage's office in order to request the background information. He could lay out the groundwork and delegate the task from there. Reminding himself to place a man on tailing the boy back to his home in the off chance that he had been given a fake name, he moved quickly, disappearing in a flurry of leaves.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen had called for all records on Ena Kuroshi's family history and was personally going over it with Kakashi, trying to make sense of what had happened.

When he had found out that the boy had moved into his old family home and was using the forge to make iron kunai and throwing stars, or by melting old steel, he had been a little worried about possible accidents, but more sympathetic.

Little Kuroshi's entire family had been killed in the demon's attack and none of his distant relatives would take him in. It seemed as though the boy had been trying to keep the only connection he had to his family alive. It wasn't uncommon for orphans, even if the boy was a bit young. So Hiruzen had positioned off duty ninja to watch him and take care of any fires that might pop up.

Sure it had been strange for a boy to start working as a blacksmith at the age of three, but the work he had been doing had mostly dealt with molds and was hardly complex. Kakashi had become a full fledged ninja at the age of five, performing B rank jutsu at the age of six. Things much more advance and personally dangerous than pouring hot metal into a mold and sharpening it. Even if the child had cut off his finger, it would hardly have been the end of his life. There were even medical ninjutsu which would have been able to reattach the finger if something like that had ever happened.

Perhaps being around so many geniuses had dulled the old man's perspective a bit, but even he had been dumbfounded when he heard that the boy had actually reforged Hakkō Chakura Tō. Such a thing shouldn't have been possible, and Hiruzen was searching everywhere to try to find an explanation. Paperwork could wait. He hated the stuff anyways. The other Hokage were all lucky to die young so that they could get away from the mess.

The village leader didn't even look up when he heard Hiashi request entry. He gave a quick nod. "It's a surprise to have the Hyūga's head come here in person. How long has it been? Three or four months, and even then it was a clone rather than you yourself," asked Hiruzen sounding a bit like an bitter grandfather who wondered why his grandkids didn't come to visit more often.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama. Though I would think that our positions keep us too busy for idle visits." Hiashi said with a short bow as he entered the room.

He didn't even spare Kakashi a glance, nor did he react to the short glare from Kakashi for being so clearly brushed off as not noteworthy. 'Stupid rich prick.'

"That's the exact reason why I need people to stop by. I'm too old for this job." Hiruzen said with a shake of the head. "What do you want Hiashi?" The Hokage said, not bothering with formalities. Why be formal when he practically wiped the boy's ass growing up.

"I'd like to request access to some of the village's old records involving a 'Ena' family, in relation to an Ena Kuroshi." Hiashi said clearly.

"You too?" Hiruzen snorted, to the Hyūga's surprise. "Get in line. Anbu and three other clans are already on my ass about it. Danzou has already requested that I give him exclusive control to matters involving the boy and restrict all intelligence about his history. Of course I told him that I would discuss the matter with whoever I damn well please and that he should keep his nose out of civilian business. Still, he's doing his best to go behind my back and silence any rumors. Not to any great success considering you're here. How long is it going to be until the Uchiha's are knocking on my door as well?"

"Hokage-sama... I do not know about the rumors in which you speak." Hiashi admitted slowly after weighing the pros and cons of pretending like he knew what the old man was on about.

"Huh? You don't know? Then what are you asking about him for?" Hiruzen asked before sighing and sliding back in his chair. "If you're going to be asking around about the boy you are going to find out anyways. Kakashi, show him."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi said before grabbing onto the hilt of a blade on his back. Hiashi had to half shield his Byakugan eyes, even without them fully activated, the chakra surrounding the blade was intense, so intense that it would be visible to the normal eye. The swirling white light was like a miniature sun in the white eyes of the Hyūga's eyes.

"What... is that chakra?" Hiashi said in slight awe.

"This is Hakkō Chakura Tō." Kakashi said, a little smugly as he flourished the blade before putting it back in its sheath.

"Earlier today, Kuroshi-kun returned the blade to Kakashi after somehow reforging it to its former glory. A shopkeeper had been so surprised that he dropped a sword on his foot and was rushed to the hospital. While there he told the nurses about what he saw, who told the other patients, who told their teams, bosses, and clan heads, and now four hours later, everyone seems to know about it and are trying to lay some kind of claim to the boy's future. Mostly two smaller clans who are claiming him by blood, though it is four times removed." The Hokage said with an angry grunt. "Shameless fools. They didn't give a damn about the kid when he was just some orphan."

"That boy... created that!?" Hiashi said, shaking his head in disbelief. "How?"

"Who knows." The Hokage admitted with a shrug. "But if that isn't the reason for why you are asking about the boy, then enlighten me as to why you are asking. I'll consider sharing with you what I got if you share what you know."

It was an indirect way of ordering Hiashi to tell him what his purpose was. The clan head could refuse, but it would put him in an awkward position. Which was why the Third did it. These kinds of games were the essence of life for people like them.

"I found the boy earlier today inside of the Hyūga garden, playing with my daughter. None of the guards saw him come in and no traps there tripped. He just suddenly appeared." Hiashi admitted, hoping that Hiruzen would let him in on more information. "The way they acted around each other, I would guess that they have been meeting for months without anyone in my clan noticing."

"Hm... is that so?" The Third said, closing his eyes. "That doesn't match up with our current hypothesis, but our current guesses don't make much sense anyways."

"My I ask what those guesses are?" Hiashi asked, starting to wonder if he should grab a chair.

The Hokage looked to Kakashi and gestured for him to speak.

The white haired ninja sighed and started reporting. "Three weeks ago, I meet Ena Kuroshi at one of the ninja supply shops when I was looking to have the Hakkō Chakura Tō repaired. I'm not sure how, but Ena knew things. He knew secrets about the blade that the maker and my father took to their graves. Things that I thought only I knew." Kakashi said holding the sheathed blade out in front of himself. "He also recounted the history of my father. Something I am almost certain he had never heard before. And then offered to fix the blade. Claiming that he wanted to see it whole. And for some reason, I let him try. The rest is history."

"I'm guessing that the boy has some sort of unrecorded or new Kekkei Genkai, perhaps a Dōjutsu that provides him with a knowledge of the history of items he sees." Hiruzen said, scratching at his chin. "The odds of such a thing are nearly zero, but it is the only explanation we can think of. Kakashi said that he knew about the special traits of Hakkō Chakura Tō before he touched it, so vision is the most likely catalyst. However that wouldn't explain how he got past your guards' eyes."

"Knowledge that can't be explained." Hiashi mumbled closing his eyes and frowning.

"You have any possible explanations? Don't suppose he somehow gained the secrets of the Hakkō Chakura Tō from that miniature Tsunade of yours?" Hiruzen said. He often compared Hikaru to Tsunade, both being out of control genius noble clan heiresses, with extremely powerful attachments to their younger siblings. Though the Hyūga heir was far more talented at a young age than even the now legendary Tsunade had been.

The Third Hokage wished that the girl would be brought around more often. He liked talking to the girl. It was a pleasant interruption from his office life. Kind of like Naruto's visits, though with less written complaints accompanying it. The old man had the sneaking suspicion he had been labeled as a bad influence on the girl, just because he supported her curiosity in all things and taught her anything she asked.

The clan was trying to control her and shape her into their ideal heir, but the more they tried the more she resisted. Some of her resistance came in the form of Ninjutsus and Genjutsus that the girl seemed to have made up herself, earning her a reputation for being a bit sadistic and the nickname 'the Byakugan Yāo', the white eyed witch. A nickname that amused the girl to no end.

Hiashi was quiet for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Forgive me Hokage-sama, but I do not believe I can be of any help." He said. "Since you are already looking into the boy's past, I will keep my clan out of your hair. I am sorry for taking up your time."

"Hm... well, don't be a stranger." The Hokage said, as the clan head dismissed himself.

"Both children have these strange chakra channels, and both possess knowledge that should be beyond them." Hiashi said when he was well out of range of any ears. He could not tell anyone outside of the clan about Hikaru's condition. If the extra chakra paths somehow provided the ability to gain such skills and knowledge, then who knows what some people might do to obtain it. "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. I trust you with my life, but I must think of my daughter first."


	5. Chapter 5

Shirou struggled with several awkward bundles as he made his way back to his home from a late morning trip to the marketing district.

He had picked up the standard array of mixes, fruits, veggies, spices and meats he used in his cooking, as well as some less day to day things. Grounding cloths and metallic threads were hard to come by, as most people didn't have any use for them, but they were key in several forms of complex magic arrays. Ninja's seemed to prefer to use what they called sealing paper and chakra infused ink to do their Fuinjutsu, but the paper was more delicate than the cloth, and would burn if too much prana was absorbed into it. Rin had been making him keep an eye out for anything that would work for a while and a few out of town traders had brought in some.

Ever since he had reconnected with Rin, he had been helping supply her with the things she needed for her magecraft. The first thing she had done was make new clothes for herself, sewing in several runes and Fuinjutsu formulas that would allow her to be able to mask her chakra presence by funneling it until the seals. Through this she had started to sneak out of her families compound nearly everyday to meet up with Shirou. Things really did feel like old times as they worked to turn the small Ena compound into a virtual fortress through a variety of seals and bounded fields.

Not all the things that Shirou had bought were for Rin though. He himself had to buy some chakra infused sand for his smithing.

It had been a slight surprise to him when he started getting requests to make swords. He didn't really know why it was such a surprise, something along the lines of Hakkō Chakura Tō was bound to get attention. But now he found that rather than making kunai and throwing stars, he was exclusively making swords.

It was a whole lot more work. Where someone could pop out a couple dozen kunai in an afternoon, a chakra blade took weeks to make. Though the price and number requested were also different. Ever ninja seemed to have somewhere between ten and a hundred kunai and throwing stars, however, more high quality weapons were more limited. So most ninja only had one or two if any. This was probably because of the price difference.

A lot of ninja were just simple mercenaries who didn't have the most money, most lived on a sort of village subsidized plan. A kunai cost around five hundred ryō a piece, you could buy five of them for the same cost as a fancy meal. On the other hand, good katana could be compared to the price of a one bedroom apartment. A chakra blade was closer to a house, and the village wouldn't help pay for those kind of expenses.

At first Shirou considered just sticking to making the kunai. He wasn't all that comfortable giving people such blades. Yes kunai were still weapons that would be used to hurt people, but it was like the difference between selling a knife and selling someone an assault rifle. Unfortunately, Rin was a little too insistent on him taking the higher paying jobs, and long experience had taught him to simply not fight her on such things.

Luckly, because there were a large number of requests, he was able to be more picky about who he chose to make weapons for. He categorized the people who he saw into three main groups, two of which he wouldn't make blades for. It was easy enough to tell the people apart. Just one look at their current weapons told Shirou novels about the people that came to him.

The first and largest group were the people who believed that having a powerful blade would make them strong. These people were idiots. They reminded Shirou of an old proverb about putting pearls on a pig. It doesn't matter how beautiful the pearls, the pig is still a pig and won't look any prettier, you'll just be wasting good jewelry. Powerful swords that ended up in the hands of people like this usually didn't stay in their hands for very long, as they would be killed and the weapons simply taken off their corpse.

The second were the people who were too good at what they did. People who killed more than was probably necessary and took innocent lives. Giving a powerful blade to them would be like giving an already dangerous dog rabies. Shirou had no desire to help these people be more efficient killers.

But if the people asking were actually of a decent sort, only taking jobs that helped people, then Shirou would usually consent to making something. Sadly this group seemed to be in the minority. So far, in the five months since he made Hakkō Chakura Tō, he had made four other blades for three different people.

Shirou was wondering just what he would be making for lunch when a now familiar scent come into the range of his sixth sense. He looked towards a park bench and saw the source, Uzumaki Naruto.

Shirou had long since realized what the boy was. There was no mistaking that scent. The disturbance that lingered in the air around him, something that distorted nature, but also seemed to be a part of it. Any magus would be able to sense it, and nearly any magus could tell you exactly what it was.

A spirit of nature that has been contorted by hate, a true demon. Not just any demon, but the Nine Tailed Demon that ravaged the village.

Shirou had seen the boy running around dozens of times, and each time he had done his best to simply ignore it, but today something was different. Shirou couldn't sense any of the ANBU who usually tailed the boy, acting as secret guards. He was all alone, sitting on the park bench, nobody watching.

Shirou put down his shopping and started to walk towards the park.

Naruto was not the demon itself. Shirou knew that. Demons, just like with most spirits, were non-corporeal beings, masses of mystical energy. Only the most powerful among them ever gained a physical form, and that was usually through a contract with Gaia. However, there was little doubt in Shirou's mind that the boy's body was paying host to the demon. The whisker marks on his cheeks were signs of the demon influencing its host's body.

It was really sad. The child was innocent. However, Shirou was all to aware of how possessed human were. They could exist completely normal lives without anyone having a clue, until something causes them to feel blood lust. After that they would go berserk.

Shirou had a few dozen swords in his Unlimited Blade Works that had been used against these half breeds in the past. He could scan their history and remember those horrible battles. A human body possessed by a demon could be compared to a Servant in terms of raw power, and the added healing factor from the demons nature made them hard to kill. That was with a normal demon. With one as strong as the Nine Tails, it would be an entire Holy Grail War level of dangerous.

"Kill one to save a hundred." Shirou mumbled to himself, steeling his heart for what he was going to do.

Killing demons was no easy task. Even if the vessel was destroyed, it wouldn't truly kill the demon. Through its connection to nature, the demon would eventually regenerate, which was probably why the boy had been allowed to live. However, there were ways of severing that connection.

Usually a normal Black Key would do the trick, but Shirou wasn't taking any chances. He loaded up Gae Buidhe, a fairy made weapon, into his Unlimited blade works, preparing to Trace it. The short spear would be fairly maneuverable, even with Shirou's shortened height, and would easily sever the demon's bond with nature, destroying it forever.

However, right before Shirou made to plunge the spear through the back of the boy's chest, a low growling sound filled the air, giving him pause. It was... the child's stomach. Looking closer, Shirou saw that the child was holding his stomach and sobbing softly.

He didn't show most of the usual signs of neglect or abuse. He wasn't all that thin, and he didn't have any bruises covering his body. Though even if he was being starved and beaten, the demon inside of him would keep him alive and unscarred. It would provide him with all the energy he needed without having to canalize his own body, and it would heal any obvious injures. However, there were things that the demon wouldn't effect.

The boy was small, even for a three year old. Even with the demon providing him with energy, it couldn't replace two of the most important things for the growth of a young body, substance and human contact.

His cloths were a mess, the black shirt with the leaf symbol on the front made it hard to notice until you got closer, but it was covered with holes and looked like it had been a long while since it had a good washing. A few small blood stains spoke of injures that his body had received. There was also a good deal of dirt in his hair, and he was shivering slightly, the late fall air being rather cold for a worn out t-shirt and shorts.

There was also the mere fact that the boy was out there all alone. Shirou and Rin weren't exactly your normal children but even they were hardly left all alone for more than a few hours. It was actually quite annoying to the thirty plus year old children.

Sympathy started to erode away the steel Shirou was trying to erect around his heart. He tried to maintain his focus, and hold fast to his ideals... but rather than Tracing his weapon and finishing the demon off, he called out to the boy.

"Hey." Shirou said, causing the kid to snap up and look at him with deep blue eyes filled with fear. It hardly registered with Shirou that even though his cheeks were stained with tears, the boy's eyes weren't at all blood shot. Demon regeneration must have guarded against even that. "You hungry?"

* * *

'Well, its not like he's going to lose control right away. I can at least give him a last meal.' Shirou tried to tell himself. He hadn't given up on the idea of killing the boy. It was still the option that insured safety for the greatest number of lives. He was just... delaying it a little.

Shirou knew damn well that neither Saber or Archer would have hesitated for a second in ending the boy's life. They wouldn't have even felt the slightest bit conflicted about it. Lancer might have said it put a bad taste in his mouth to kill such a young child, but he would have done it. They would have all realized it was a necessary evil and done their duties as heroes.

"Are you sure its okay?" Naruto said, standing back a bit as Shirou moved up towards his home, giving the barrier around the house his command to let Naruto through. "Won't your parents be mad at you for this?"

"Hm?" Shirou mumbled, being dragged out of his thoughts. "No, its fine. I don't have any parents."

"You don's!?" Naruto half shouted in surprise, his blue eyes widening as he stared at Shirou, as if seeing the slightly older child in a new light.

Shirou ignored the boy's surprise as he opened up the door to his house and carried in his shopping. "I'm home!" He shouted out of a half ingrained habit. That's not to say he didn't get a response.

"It's about time, Shirou-chan!" The grinning face of a purple haired female ninja said as the owner of these features idly played with a few kunai. "I came all the way here to see you, and there wasn't even a hint of a free lunch."

"Shouldn't you be at work, Anko-nee?" Shirou said in a disapproving voice.

Mitarashi Anko was somewhere between fifteen and sixteen, though she wouldn't actually tell them her exact age. Her purple hair was usually worn in a sort of spiked up ponytail and her brown eyes were as featureless as Rin's white.

She had first shown up two month previous, under the pretense of her house being messed up in a large scale plumbing accident, and needing a place to crash for a while. Unlike the other ninja who were usually field ops, Anko worked in Konoha's Intelligence Division.

The older girl had been sent to spy on him and Rin. When Rin confronted her about it, she didn't even both denying it. The Hokage had ordered for the two of them to be watched, and Anko had been assigned to both act as a sort of guard and to report on their activities. Young as she was, Shirou would admit that she was highly skilled.

She considered it to be the best job she had ever been assigned. She was getting paid to live in a nice house with someone else doing all of the household work, being given three home cooked meals a day, and got to tease Shirou all she wanted.

After the whole 'you're spying on us' was out of the way, Anko and Rin ended up being fairly friendly with one and other. It was probably due to their mutual pass time of teasing Shirou, though the fact that Anko was knowledgeable about various summoning techniques and willing to share didn't hurt.

Shirou also didn't mind Anko's presence. It was actually a lot like having Fuji-nee around. Maybe even disturbingly like it.

"Oh don't be like that, Shirou-chan. I'm supposed to be watching you and the princess. How am I supposed to do that if I don't swing by during the day to make sure you two precious little monsters are alright." Anko said with a wide grin.

She had taken up Rin's calling of Shirou 'Shirou-chan', believing that Shirou was a humiliating nickname, and not realizing it was actually his name. Rin she called 'the Princess', though she seemed to believe that 'Rin' was Shirou's attempt at a counter nickname, as Rin meant dignified and cold.

Looking past Shirou and at Naruto, Anko raised an eyebrow slightly. "Hey, looks like a stray followed you home."

Naruto bristled a bit at that. "I'm not a stway!" He said angrily. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna be the greadest ninja ever!"

"My my, listen to it hiss." Anko chuckled as the young blond fumed.

"Naruto will be joining us for lunch, so try to play nice." Shirou said as he put down his bundles on the table.

"You know if you feed it, it won't ever leave. That's just how strays are." Anko said with a sly smile.

"You mean like you?" Shirou said drily.

"Ah, that wasn't very nice. I thought you loved me, Shirou-chan." Anko fake pouted.

"I'm going to start making lunch now. Any requests? If so, there's a good chance I know how to make it." Shirou asked Naruto, doing his best to ignore Anko's antics at the moment.

"Uhm... can you make ramen?" Naruto asked, seeming to forget about Anko rather quickly.

"Ramen?" Shirou repeated, thinking over the list of ingredients needed to make it.

The little boy's face light up like a bonfire. "Yeah! Ramen is the most amazing food ever! There's this nice man, Teuchi, he sometimes gives me some whenever..!" Naruto's enthusiasm faltered before he merely continued on a different train. "Teuchi saids that ramen is the food of the gods! It is the best food ever and it could be used to solve all the worlds problems if you got enough of it!"

"Is that so? Well, I might not be as good as Teuchi is, but I can see what I can do." Shirou said, leaving Naruto with Anko as he went into the kitchen to start preparations.

Shirou let himself be lost in the mundane task of cooking. Rin never really understood why Shirou liked to do such things. The half mechanical tasks that took up just enough concentration to stop you from thinking about the great world. The kitchen became his universe, and nothing outside of it could matter.

Shirou didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to consider what life must be like for Naruto. The kind of hardships that the small child had to endure with the world at large being willingly ignorant of his suffering. That or causing it.

It reminded him too much of Sakura. One of the things in his past life that he felt worst about. He had been so close to the girl for so many years, but hadn't noticed the hell she had been put through. The guilt of it ate away at him. He knew it did the same to Rin.

Shirou spent the next twenty minutes decompressing as he prepared lunch. But the moment he exited the kitchen, the fact that the world he was in was a strange one was brought right back to his attention.

"Anko-nee, what are you doing?" Shirou asked dumbly.

"Babysitting." The ninja replied in a matter of fact manner as she sat on Naruto and filled her nails.

"Kuroshi... help me..." Naruto gasped as he was crushed underneath the young woman's butt.

Shirou sighed. "Lunch is ready, so just get off of him."

"You're no fun, Shirou-chan." Anko said in a disappointed manner, though she did get off of Naruto so that she could grab her meal.

"Hey, why do you keep calling Kuroshi Shirou-chan?" Naruto asked, giving the teen ninja a wide berth as he too took up a chair.

"That's the Princess's nickname for her little pet." Anko said with a wide grin as she saw Shirou twitch at being called a pet.

"Princess?" Naruto said with a slight gasp.

As if on cue, the door to the room Rin had claimed as her personal study opened up and the girl herself came walking out holding a cup of coffee and a sheet of papers. "Hey Shirou. I smelled lunch. Did you grab my things for me from the markets?" She said in the manner of a lady addressing a servant.

She was dressed in the clothes she had prepared to help her sneak out of her house. The long sleeved red top and short black skirt with stockings were very much alike the clothes she had worn in high school, though without her older figure, they didn't produce the same drop jaw response out of anyone but true perverts.

She half stopped on her way to the table when she noticed Naruto. "Shirou, why is there a possessed boy at the table?" Rin asked, switching to speaking in English.

The native language around the elemental nations was more of a dialect of Japanese, so whenever Shirou and Rin needed to speak to each other while others were watching, they decided the best course of action was to switch to English. It always shocked the people who were trying to listen in on them, who believed that the two four year olds had somehow managed to set up an entire code language without them noticing.

"He... was hungry." Shirou responded, a little bit embarrassed.

Rin sighed as she took her seat at the table. "Only you, Shirou."

"Are you really a princess?" Naruto asked, looking Rin up and down suspiciously.

"Of course I am." Rin said with a smile as she sat in a very dignified manner. "Haven't you ever seen a princess before."

Shirou sighed, knowing full well that she was trying to brainwash the little boy. So he did the only thing he could do to stop it. Shirou brought out the ramen and passed everyone their portions.

All talking ended abruptly as Naruto practically attacked his bowl. Anko was only slightly better, though Rin controlled herself, eating in a civilized manner.

Shirou held off, watching everyone as they ate his food, taking a little satisfaction at how people seemed to like it.

"Uhm... As usual, your cooking is at an acceptable level, as to standard." Rin said in her high and mighty fashion.

Anko snorted. "Your words of praise are too overwhelming, Princess. You should be careful, it might go to his head."

Naruto didn't say a word. He couldn't, not with the rate he was eating. It wasn't until he dipped his bowl back, drinking the broth so fast that some of it spilt out onto his shirt that he finally said anything. "That was amazing! Maybe even better than Teuchi!" He said with a satisfied sigh and he seemed to dissolve down into his seat.

"Maybe its just hunger making you say that." Shirou said before asking the question that had been bugging him. "Naruto, why were you out there in the park alone?" The intelligence officer in the room pricked up her ears, though tried to pretend she was still interested in her food. No doubt Anko was going to go sell out or blackmail whoever it was that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the demon host.

Naruto's face momentarily twitched into a sad expression before he sat up and puffed out his chest in a fake pride. "Oh, one of those cranky old farts at the orphanage was PMSing or something. I didn't want to put up with him any more, so I left."

Shirou frowned. Ignoring the obvious fact that Naruto didn't have a clue what PMSing meant, Shirou could read between the lines well enough. Since Naruto didn't have anything but the clothes on his back, the people running the orphanage must have thrown the boy out onto the streets the night before. Whether that was a permanent thing, or if it was the first time it had happened, Shirou didn't know. Naruto must have been forced to sleep out in the cold and had missed breakfast, perhaps dinner to.

"Did you manage to eat dinner last night or..." Shirou tested.

"Um... well no... but that doesn't matter! A guy like me can go days without eating anything!" Naruto tried to boast. Sadly, his stomach growled in disagreement, causing his face to fall.

"Stupid kid. Don't pretend you are more okay then you are. Doesn't do you any good to lie to anyone here." Anko said, her face more serious than normal. There was probably a story there, but Shirou wouldn't pry. Not when the person involved was someone who was a master of daggers and poisons.

"Here." Shirou pushed his bowl in front of Naruto, who blinked in surprise.

"But this is your food." Naruto said.

"I can make myself something else in a bit. You need it more." Shirou said, waving the boy off.

Naruto grinned wide. "Thank you!" He said before digging into the second bowl.

Rin watched the boy eating before a smile grin passed over her face. "Alright, I've decided." She said, getting the others attention. "Naruto-kun is going to be living here from now on."

"Huh!?" Naruto shouted, accidently spilling more of his ramen on himself.

Shirou himself tensed up. "You do realize this is my house?" He said, locking eye contact with the girl, trying to send the message that this was not a good idea.

"Hm? Did you say something, Shirou?" Rin replayed, her warm smile not masking the fact that she was going to ignore all his complaints from this point on.

"Just what I needed, another brat to look after." Anko said, though she didn't seem that opposed to the idea. "I'll go tell the old man. I need to be heading off to deliver my reports anyways. They better increase my pay." She got up and left before Shirou could stop her.

"Hey! What if I don't want to live here!?" Naruto shouted, still in shock.

"Makes no difference. I am a princess and I have decided. You are just going to have to deal with it. That's the way the world works after all." Rin said with a soft chuckle, confusing the actual child. "Now, if you are going to stay here, the first thing you will need is a bath. You're filthy. Some of Shirou's old clothes will probably fit you and he can get you new things later."

Rin hurriedly forced Naruto to go and take a bath, leaving her and Shirou alone together. After doing a quick sweep for people listening it, they got to talking.

"Rin, he's possessed by a demon. He needs to be put down before he goes berserk." Shirou said trying to maintain a level of professional calm about it. Something he was finding difficult to do.

"I doubt he will go lose himself to the demon immediately. I'd give it another ten years or so. Who knows, it might never happen." Rin said, waving him off.

"It might never happen if he spent his entire life livings in peace. With how things are, I doubt he will make it till he is ten. Especially if he actually tries to become a ninja and is exposed to killing." Shirou counted. "Every day he lives comes the risk that something might happen. Another incident, just like three years ago. I'm not going to take those kinds of chances."

Rin rolled her eyes and smiled. "Alright then. How about a bet. If you can bring yourself to do it, then kill him. I won't stop you. But if you can't, I get to observe him as research material." Rin said tapping her chin. "I doubt that a demon as powerful as the Nine Tails actually willingly took on a human host. It is probably bound to the child with a seal of some kind. It would be interesting to take a closer look at. Not to mention the demon itself. I wonder how the changes in Gaia would effect those spirits that are connected to nature. So many questions."

Shirou's jaw dropped. "You can't be serious."

Rin turned to him, giving him a sly smile. "Oh I am serious, and I know I'm going to win. You won't kill him, because you aren't Archer, and you never will be." Then she walked out, returning back to her chan and leaving Shirou to take care of the three year old time bomb.

Closing his eyes, Shirou tried again to steel his heart, only to find the steel crumbling at the memory of Naruto's hopeful blue eyes. "I'll... kill him next week." Shirou mumbled to himself, before running off to fetch some clothes that would fit the small boy.


	6. Chapter 6

Rin was allowing a few of her grandfather's men to escort her. They had been waiting for her outside of Shirou's home for about an hour, and she had let them wait. No point for her to rush herself around on the elder's account.

They couldn't actually enter Shirou's compound, no one with a Caged Bird Seal could. Rin had preformed a Structural Analysis of one of the seals while the owner was... asleep, and through that had an almost perfect understanding of the seal. She then used that understanding the set up a barrier around Shirou's house that would part way trigger the seal of they ever came too close.

It wasn't enough to kill them, and as long as they cleared the area in a hurry they would only get a bad headache, but one stubborn man who had tried to get all the way through the front door ended up hospitalized. When Rin was taking to the emergency medics, she told them that the man had come down the a terminal case of stupidity, sadly there was no cure.

All of this was just one of the ways that she said 'fuck you' to her grandfather. Her father and mother always came to pick her up themselves when they wanted something, but her grandfather would only send the little people. He could have at least been smart enough to use a member of the clan that didn't have the seal. Even though most non main family members were marked, there were still serval who didn't have the seal.

The seals main purpose was to insure that the clan's secrets were never leaked if one of the members was ever captured, so for those individuals who simply chose to live inside of the city their entire lives, there was no need for the seal.

Most of the clan's girls were like this, and went through bridal training rather than ninja training. The old clan heads saw the need to keep several baby makers around in order to make up for mortality rates, and the stress caused by the seals was bad for the babies in the womb. Not a difficult observation to make with the Byakugan eyes.

As she was being taken back home, she thought back to her short meeting with the possessed child, Naruto.

If one approached the issue of the boy from a utilitarian model of ethics, then what they should do was clear. You kill one loveless orphan to prevent the deaths of hundreds.

Rin didn't know what kind of seal was being used in order to seal away something as powerful as the nine tailed beast, but it wasn't powerful enough. That fact was as plain as the whiskers on the boy's face. The demon's energies were mixing in with the boy's, slowly changing him. Even without a trigger, it was only a matter of time.

It would start with small physical changes on the body, like the whiskers, then progress unto personality issues or a uncanny tendency. His nails would most likely get longer and his teeth would sharpen. He would become increasingly violent and rebellious. The last hint would be that his eyes would turn red, his hair might also turn red too, depending on the type of demon. After that he would lose control all together and the demon would take over.

That happening in the middle of a city as large as Konoha was bad. Like a hungry Dead Apostle in the middle of down town Tokyo kind of bad. Kiss the village goodbye kind of bad.

Possessed people who reached this point were as strong as a Servant and were maybe even harder to kill. You would rip off their arms, blast their hearts into pieces or even chop off their heads and the thing would just regenerate and keep coming. The destructive power it could call on was comparable to an Anti-fortress Noble Phantasm. Even if the ninja of Konoha could deal with something of that magnitude, most likely hundreds would die. As far as Rin knew, there was no turning back once the demon fully took over, Naruto would die anyways, consumed by the demon.

It wouldn't even end there. Rin could only assume they sealed the demon in Naruto because they lacked the means to destroy it completely. So a few years down the line, the demon would regenerate and continue its killing spree.

Altogether, Shirou using his weapons to put an end to the beast once and for all would probably save somewhere in the thousands of people, all at the cost of one orphan boy that no one even seemed to care about.

Yes, a utilitarian would definitely say to just kill the boy. Sadly, Rin was not a utilitarian. She believed that some things were worth the possible deaths of thousands of people that she didn't care about. She could think of two reasons that were good enough for her to try to keep the boy alive.

The one that Shirou would guess was professional curiosity. Besides just being interested in the seal that was used on the boy, the demon itself was something to be looked at. A human possessed by a true demon, one born from nature rather than from the thoughts of man, was not something you found every day. No magus had ever had a chance to fully examine one. The possible things that could be learned were unbelievable.

By there nature, True Demons converted the Mana or 'Natural Energy' in the air into Life Force or 'Physical Energy', which could then be used by its host, either refining it in their magic circuits to create Od, or mixing it with 'Mental Energy' to make Chakra. Mana was normally toxic to humans, and yet though these true demons it could be turned into almost endless amounts usable energy.

Not to mention the origin of this particular demon, if the stories were true. The Sage of the Six Paths had used his power, 'the Creation of All Things', in order to divide the power of the Ten Tailed Demon into the Nine Tailed Beasts, who had been noncorrupted Spirits of Nature in the beginning, rather than Demons. They had only become twisted later on after the actions of humans.

Not only was this a case of converting a Demon back into a normal Nature Spirit, but it was also the equivalent to a True Magic. The Heaven's Feel, the power to create new souls. To have the actual product of such a power right in front of her almost made Rin start to drool.

With the decreased influence of Gaia in this new world, there had been a lot of things that looked like True Magic, but each time Rin looked closer she would find that they weren't. For example, summonings didn't actually open a gateway into another world. It borrowed things, and those things had to go back. If something was taken, then something of equal value must be given in order to get it. Borrowed space took up energy to maintain and the energy would be worked on by Gaia in order to destroy it. It was something that was only possible because of the weakened Gaia, but it still followed all the normal laws of logic, unlike with True Magic which could break the natural laws.

It had been the same with most space-time Jutsu. They looked something like the real deal, but they never reached that point of being a True Magic. Finding anything that could lead her to rediscovering the Heaven's Feel was something she would be willing to risk lives over. Nearly every Magus would.

The second reason for letting the boy live was something much more personal. It had to do with a promise. She had promised Archer that she wouldn't let Shirou become him.

It was going to be hard, but if they could actually save the boy rather than following that stupid ideal and making a sacrifice out of him, then it would be a big step to changing Shirou's bleak future. The fact that Shirou hadn't killed the boy the moment he had the chance was a positive sign.

So Rin was resigning herself to the fact that she was going to have to figure out how to remove the demon without killing the boy in the ten or so years time before the boy reached the point of no return. A job that no one in history of her old world had accomplished after the first signs of physical changes started.

She didn't really have to worry about him actually going over the limit though. Shirou wouldn't hold back if he saw red eyes. So with the boy staying with Shirou, there was little danger of him killing a good percentage of the city. Shirou also had a good deal of experience with mental barriers from back when he needed to maintain them against Archer's Arm. It might not be strong enough to stop the inevitable, but adding it to the existing seals would buy more time.

Once she got back to the Hyūga Clan compound, Rin was guided towards her grandfather. Actually, that wasn't entirely accurate, she was the one walking at the front of the group, with the two branch family members who had been sent to retrieve her following behind her. She walked with her arms crossed, her chin held high and a confident smile on her face. She was perhaps the only person in the entire village who would approach the Hyūga elder in such a fashion. Shirou would probably could if told to, but he did put on an act to please others more than Rin did. Rin had never hid her personality before and she wasn't about to start. She didn't care that she was now a four year old again. She would never let anyone take advantage of her. She would never show weakness.

She found her grandfather in his personal study, if it could be called that. It didn't really have much research materials or any important documents. Several of the books that lined the shelves were more of the recreational type. It was all more for show then a true study. Rin had been in real studies before, none were as clean as her grandfather's.

"Good afternoon Ojiu-san. I hope you aren't tiring yourself out too much by seeing me. I've heard the elderly really do need their bed rest." Rin said with an all too pleasant smile as she looked up towards her grandfather as he stood behind his desk, seeming to not care about the perfectly good chair behind him as he gazed down at his granddaughter. Rin didn't care, she just took a seat and made herself comfortable.

Rin wasn't actually sure what her grandfather's name even was. She doesn't think she has ever heard of it. Most in the clan called him the 'honorable elder'. So she made fun of him for his age, even though he was in his early fifties at the latest. Like most nobles, he married young and had kids young. Still, his hair had some gray to it and his face had that old man look to it, as if worries of his time had worn him down.

"I understand that you went to that blacksmith boy's again, even though you were meant to accompany your father and mother to see the Daimyō." The elder said in his grouchy voice.

"Hm... was I? I don't recall." Rin said tapping a finger against her bottom lip. She had remembered very well, but she personally didn't like the flaky Lord, and she hated his 'clam basket' wife. Her grandfather glared deeply at her.

"Just like you forgot your Taijutsu training again, and the fact that I had requested your presence at the clan meeting?" The older man said coldly.

"Oh, but Ojiu-san you did not offer me anything. If you request a serves of someone, you need to offer something in return for that serves. Or have you become so entitled in your old age that you feel yourself above the need for bartering. Sorry, but I'm not going to spoil you." Rin said in a chipper voice.

Rin would be the first to admit that her father had a little bit of a stick up his ass, though he was a good man, but her grandfather had more like an entire tree penetrating his butt hole. The two hadn't got along, and tension between them was rising.

It stemmed from Rin's lack of interest in the Clan. The Clan her grandfather had bled for, had seen the people close to him die for. When his wife had given birth to twins, he had marked one of his own sons as a baby with the Cage Bird Seal in order to prevent any question about the next Head of Clan that might form a divide in the Clan and threaten it. Now his own granddaughter, the most talented ninja to ever be born in the village, was brushing off her duties to the Clan and the Clan's ideology.

"Hikaru. You have a duty to this Clan. You will be the next Head and you must act accordingly. You do not get a chose in this matter." Her grandfather said strictly.

"Is me becoming the next Head of Clan that worrying to you? Maybe I should just step down then." Rin teased. "I'm sure Hinata-chan would be a much better Head than me anyways. She's so sweet and cute. I wouldn't mind following her."

The Hyūga elder didn't smile in the slightest. "That is not possible. Hinata is being made a member of the branched family." The man said sharply.

Rin froze, her Byakugan eyes flaring to life. The elder watched quietly as Rin scanned the entire house hold for her little sister, her smile gone and a look of urgency replacing it. "Where is she?" Rin asked, her voice now dead serious as she glared at her grandfather.

"She has been taken to be given the Caged Bird Seal." The elder said calmly. "You should not concern yourself with this. She has her fate, and you have yours. The two of you were always going to be separated."

Rin and her grandfather's eyes met and they simply stared at each other for a few long seconds. Then Rin's head fell. "I suppose you are right. It is a cruel fate to have me as an Onee-san." She said sadly. The two branch members' eyes widened in shock with the admission, though if the elder was surprised he didn't show it. She slowly got up out of her seat. "If you would excuse me, I need some time to think about things. I'll be returning to my room." She said giving a half bow before making to leave.

The elder glanced to the two who had been sent to retrieve her and gave them a signal to escort the girl, to make sure she really did go to her room rather than running off. Nodding, the two quickly obeyed their clan elder.

Rin walked quickly, though with her short legs, the two branch members hardly had to struggle to keep up. They were a little shocked at the type of response the girl had.

When the elder had decided to place the seal on the younger sister in an attempt to make young Hikaru understand her place in the clan and her fate, they had been almost sure that when they told her she would react... differently.

They had crossed nearly the entire compound before she stopped walking.

"Is something the matter Hikaru-sama?" One of the two escorts asked her when she didn't make any sign of moving.

"Yes. Something is most definitely wrong." She said coldly, holding out a hand. The two guards saw something inside of the closed fist, something that was overflowing with chakra. She dropped the small red gem, which bounced a little on the ground as the energy sealed within it started to from a barrier around the group. Then she turned to the two and had that smile on her face, the one that made them shiver. "Would either of you happen to know where the Caged Bird Sealing takes place?" She asked in a honeyed tone.

"H...Hikaru-sama, we can't..." That was as far as the man got. Rin raised her left hand, all fingers extended and pointing straight at the man as over twenty the magic circuits in her arm came alive.

" _Gandr_." Rin said as she fired off the over charged curse. The man didn't even have enough time to look shocked as the blast of dark power nearly the size of the girl's entire body flew straight into his chest. The added accuracy from her Byakugan eyes allowing her to target the man's chakra paths with the curse for maximum damage. The curse was like a shot gun blast to the man's chest and throw him back, smashing his head against the wall and knocking him unconscious. Even if it wasn't a fatal curse, the man would not be getting up for a week.

The second of the escorts had been just as surprised, watching his companion being thrown aside by the strange jutsu, he had looked away from the young girl for half a second, and when he looked back his entire body froze.

He found himself staring straight into the Byakugan eyes, only they were different than any he had seen before. The pulsing veins around the eyes glowed a light blue from the girl's mysterious chakra pathways and in the middle of the white eyes were two golden suns. Try as he might, he couldn't look away from those eyes. He couldn't even move a muscle. "Genjutsu..." He gasped, trying to build up his chakra to throw off the technique, not that he would be given the time.

Rin had used her mystic eyes of binding to hold the man still long enough for herself to take him down. She moved in quickly, delivering three gentle fist strikes to each of his legs, making the man lose control of his lower body before she toppled him with two strong punches to the stomach, knocking the air out of him. Once he was on the ground she went for his arms, disabling the chakra pathways there with a few more gentle fists, leaving the man completely helpless.

With a knee on his chest, she placed on hand on his head, with her thumb on his forehead, right over his Caged Bird Seal. She started to feed chakra into it in such a way as to start the activation. The man screamed with pain but it didn't matter, she had already set up a barrier to make sure that no one heard them.

"Tell me where Hinata is." Rin said, ignoring the man's screams for her to stop as her eyes still glowing with the power of binding. "Tell me where my imōto-chan is, or I'll kill you."

* * *

 **I'm getting a lot of negativity for my choices in writing. I'm trying not to care, but it is rather annoying.**

 **I'm just confused about people trying to deny that Naruto is a time bomb. How many times did he lose control by the time he was eighteen? At least eight or nine. And if something of the magnitude of his fight with O** **rochimaru happened in the middle of the city, pretty much everyone would die.**


	7. Chapter 7

It was a common mistake a lot of magus made while trying to build a secret workshop. They put so much time into perfecting their barriers to keep out prying eyes that they blind themselves in the process. Then they set up traps around the outside, not realizing that they might as well hang a giant neon sign over their heads.

The Hyūga's secret sealing grounds was little more than a stones throw away from the main compound, in a survival training area. Rin had tortured the location of the building out of the branch family member fairly quickly and had moved on before anyone could react.

Her skills with reinforcement were not on Shirou's level. She hadn't dedicated years to perfecting that single skill to the point where she could dance on the edge of total destruction, but she could still get by and increase her agility by a fair amount. She went from tree to tree, her eyes picking out every single trap that had been set up to keep people out.

If she had stopped to think, she might have gone to fetch Shirou. The boy's senses weren't as precise as hers, but will her eyes could spot something a mile away, it wasn't as helpful at picking up a trail left behind by something that has long since moved on. For that, Shirou's nose was a lot better. It might have gotten her there sooner, or removed the need to question her clan members for the location. He would have also been handy as back up. However, the girl wasn't going to stop and think. She couldn't waste any time. Hinata needed her, and she wasn't going to fail this time.

So she was alone when she reached the large grey stone building.

The place had been made to look like a security center, but Rin wasn't fooled for a second. There had been so many barriers placed on the stone, all chakra was being canceled out, preventing even her eyes from seeing into the building.

The door was an nondescript wooden thing, until Rin actually touched it. A quick Structural Analysis told her that the door was being reinforced with Earth Chakra, several seals acting as a feed to maintain its strength even under heavy attack. She recognized the style of the seals from the clan's own scrolls. This was the place.

Rin placed one finger on the door, moving it along the surface, drawing a sequence of runes with its tip as she chanted. "Be the hammer which splits apart the earth."

The runes she had traced became visible as she fed them with Prana. She took a few steps back as the force shook the door and electric sparks jumped from rune to rune. Then, with a loud crack, the wood exploded as if struck by lightning, leaving a veil of smoke behind. Rin walked through the smoke without a second thought, not wanting to waste a moment.

"Hi...karu-sama." The five members of the Hyūga Clan who had been place in charge of sealing the second daughter of the clan head were half in half out of fighting stances as they stared openly at Rin.

Rin didn't even hear them, her eyes were trained on only one thing, a young girl on a table. Hinata was asleep, most likely drugged for the sealing process. Rin could feel herself shaking with uncontrolled fury at the sight.

She pulled out two kunai and throw them straight at two of the Hyūga clan members. The blades were dodged, but they hadn't been meant to hit anyways, they just needed to transport the tags that were attached to the bottom by a short length of string.

They weren't explosive tags, Rin would never use something so dangerous near her precious little sister. She had found that if one understood the formula, then they could seal just about anything. So right after the kunai's tips sank into the far wall, the seals opened up and a flood of chakra infused water came pouring out of them like from two fire hydrants, slamming into the clan members and staggering all of them.

The moment the kunai were out of her hands, Rin was already forming hand signs. Snake. Ram. Horse. Hare. Ram. Horse. Hare. "Water Release: Water Prison!" She finished her jutsu, clapping her hands together as she commanded the water. All of the water that had been shot out began to gather together around the five clan members, pushing them into a group before forming into a sphere around them, suspending them all and leaving them next to helpless.

Rin couldn't keep up the prison for long. Even if it was only a C-rank jutsu, her child's body had not reached the level were it could support a constant strain like that. But her plans didn't involve keeping them suspended forever.

Keeping her hands together to maintain the jutsu, she traced a rune on the ground with her right foot, giving it a bit of prana. The lightning rune was weak, but it didn't need to be strong, not when its targets were suspended in water. Bubbles escaped from throats as each of the five trapped clansmen's bodies were shaken by the electric shock. It wasn't strong enough to kill, but none of them would be moving any time soon.

Releasing the water prison, Rin preformed a second jutsu on the stunned enemies. Horse. Snake. Dragon. "Wind Release: Gale Palms!" As the prison of water fell apart, the five victims were hit by the concussive blast of wind, throwing them against the wall hard and knocking them unconscious.

With the ninja disposed of, Rin rushed over to Hinata's side, having to climb up onto the table so that she could get a proper look at her little sister. She only breathed a sigh of relief after she brushed aside some of the littler girl's hair to see that her forehead was still unblemished. "Thank goodness." She said as she quietly patted the girl's head.

Hearing someone coughing up water, Rin turned her head back to the five clan members. One of them was trying to push himself... or herself, back up onto her hands and knees.

Rin's anger returned in a flash. She grabbed onto some free rope that must have been used for more difficult individuals and began to make hand signs again. Snake. Clam. Snake. Clam. "Snake Binds."

It was a jutsu that Anko had taught her as a joke, saying that if she was going to be Shirou's 'Master' then she was going to need to get into bondage. That said, it was a handy trick. Projecting the form of a snake over the rope, she made it sliver down and tie itself around the woman. The snake then bit its own tail before returning to being ordinary rope, a tight note tied where the snake's mouth had met its tail.

Rin used one foot to push the woman onto her back and stepped on her chest with a good deal of chakra reinforcing her step, pushing air and water out of the woman's mouth. "I'm impressed. I didn't think anyone would still be conscious." Rin said, dawning her high and mighty attitude.

"Hikaru...sama... why?" The woman gasped.

"I think I will be the one asking the questions here." Rin said putting a bit more pressure on the woman. "Tell me, who was it that ordered you to put the seal on my Hinata."

"The... elder. Your grandfather." The woman said. Rin was not surprise.

"I see. Now tell me, who are you loyal to?"

"To... to the main family."

"Hm... alright then, between me and the old man, who has your loyalty?"

"...I am loyal to the elder. AHHH!" The woman screamed as Rin put a hand on her forehead, activating the seal.

"That was not what I wanted to hear." Rin said, her voice was completely void of emotion. "But if you are so loyal to that old fart, then deliver a message for me. Tell him that I will be the next Head of this clan, and that if anyone lays a finger of my imōto-chan, I will use that power to end this clan. Do you understand?"

"Yes! Hikaru-sama!" The woman cried as she rived about, trying to get out from underneath Rin's hand.

"Very good!" Rin said in a false cheer, before slamming the woman's head against the ground, hard enough to knock her out. She ignored the blood coming from the back of the woman's head as she returned to her little sister. Even if she had killed the others, it wouldn't matter to her. Nothing was more important than Hinata.

* * *

Hinata felt more than a little numb as she slowly woke up. The small girl found herself back in her room, her older sister's arm draped over her as they shared a bed and blankets together.

"Onee-san..?" She said, her head hurting as she tried to organize her thoughts. A hand came up to her head as she tried to stop the room from spinning, but as her fingers touched her forehead she remembered what had happened. Her eyes started to tear up and she began to sob softly.

"Hinata-chan, what's the matter?" Rin said, pushing herself up and rubbing at her eyes and giving an overly dramatic yawn.

"Onee-san... They... They were going to... And Oji-san... he said... that we weren't going to be sisters anymore." Hinata struggled to speak through her sobs.

"There there, its okay." Rin said, pulling the three year old girl into a hug. "You were just having a bad dream. That all it was." She gently patted her sister's back as she gave her words of assurance. Rin had decided to try to let Hinata believe that it had never happen. She wanted her sister to be unscarred by the events that had transpired.

Looking back over the day, there were so many things that Rin could have done differently. While the Caged Bird Seal was designed to kill the barer if the seal was removed, it wasn't beyond Rin's skill to undo it without harming Hinata. Or she could have used Shirou's Rule Breaker to remove the seal.

Rin had always prided herself on her rationality. However, rationality had always gone out the window when her little sisters' were involved. Throughout the Holy Grail War, Rin had acted irrationally countless times for the sake of sister, Sakura.

She had revived Shirou not out of some sort of guilt for the death of the innocent, or because she had anything for him at the time. She had spent valuable resources and revived him because he had been someone precious to Sakura. Then, when he turned out to be a master, she had allied herself with him to keep him alive for her.

She had tried to fight a Caster Servant by herself in order to protect her sister. She would have let herself be killed to keep her safe. All sorts of things that were simply irrational, but she did them.

Even so, she had always felt that she hadn't done enough for Sakura. She should have done more. She should have found a way to prevent all those horrible things that happened to her. Again, irrational thoughts, but she still felt that way. She would never let anything happen to Hinata, nor would she allow anything to separate them. She didn't care if her grandfather did run the clan like a cult, she wouldn't let him touch Hinata.

"Don't worry, your Onee-san will never let anything happen to you. I'll make sure you are always safe. I promise." Rin whispered, as she rocked Hinata back to sleep.

* * *

Hiashi was not happy.

He had been home for a few hours before he finally found out what had happened, and it had not been from one of his Clan. He had gotten a report from the hospital about the condition of the clan members who his four year old daughter had half drown, electrocuted and given concussions.

After getting the full story, he had nearly gone down to the hospital to finish the bastards off for what they had tried while he was away. Only the gentle words of his wife, Hailyn, had dissuaded him from taking such extreme actions. That, and the knowledge that they were only just pawns.

"Otou-sama, would you care explaining to me why you felt the need to arrange for my daughter to be given the seal in my absence?" Hiashi asked his father. An entire lifetime of subservience was being strained by parental instinct, he and his wife cornered the elder in order to demand answers.

To his credit, or maybe against all reason, the elder was not showing any signs of remorse or embarrassment. He just stood with the exact same look on his face that he always had. "Do not act like this was a dramatic action. Sooner or later, Hinata would have been removed from the main family. That is simply her fate."

"Removed, maybe, but it has never been the tradition to give the daughters of the main family the Caged Bird." Hailyn said with a uncommon frown on her face.

It was true, as the blood of the main family was purer, it was considered too important to squander with the seal. Usually, the daughters of the main house would be made to marry in order to help keep the clan alive.

"Even if her fate was to be separated, you chose to act far too early, and without my permission." Hiashi said, trying to throw around his weight as the clan's Head. "So explain yourself."

"What is there to explain that you don't already know? Your oldest daughter is out of control. We need to have a way to bring her into line. I am sure you are familiar with the concept of a 'whipping boy'." The elder's words made both parents tense up.

The meaning was clear. With the Caged Bird Seal, the Head of Clan, or anyone who has been the Head of Clan, can induce horrible pain with just a thought. The elder was planning on controlling the rebellious Hikaru by inflicting pain on Hinata every time the girl disobeyed.

"How could you even think of doing that to your own granddaughters!?" Hailyn half shouted in her shock.

The elder closed his eyes. "I do not do so joyously, but I have resigned myself to my fate. As one who was once Head of Clan, I must do whatever it takes in order to protect the clan. Do not curse me for the role that Hinata was born into."

Hiashi frowned, something about what he had said felt off. Then, a sudden thought popped into his head. A thought that had never accrued to him ever before. It seemed so simple now that he had thought of it. 'Can fate be changed?' It was something that went against all of the clan's teachers. They said that one was born into a position in the world, and that position would guide them till their eventual end.

According to the elder, Hinata had been born to act as a tool for the main family. But with Hikaru's ultimatum, any action to use Hinata in such a manner would cause the end of the clan. Did that mean that her fate was changed? Had her fate been something else entirely to began with? What right did the clan elder have to intemperate fate? Suddenly, all the things that Hiashi had followed blindly in his life were called into question.

The things that his father had said were fate had always happened before, but was that because they were fate, or because his father had made them happen. Had the events which he had seen as the acts of fate all been just a way of rationalizing their actions. Where they just telling themselves that they were not to blame because they were only the instruments of fate?

"You are no longer the Head of Clan, I am. Matters involving the good of the clan will not be decided by you alone, and you are not to involve yourself with my daughters without my concent." Hiashi said turning to leave. "After recent events, consider yourself on thin ice, Otou-san." He added, right before leaving, his wife throwing a cold look at the older man as she followed her husband out.

"The nerve of that man!" Hailyn said, brisling with a mother's righteous anger. "How dare he think of doing that to any children, let alone his own granddaughters..!"

Hiashi only nodded along, half listening to his wife's rant. He was still thinking, thinking hard about all the times he had made a discussion in his life. Thinking about what would have happened if he had chosen something he felt was more right rather than following 'fate'. How different would the world be?

Finally, he decided something. "Hailyn." He said quietly, causing his wife to stop talking. "I am going to try to do it. I am going to try to change our fate."

The woman's eyes widened. She looked at her husband as if he had just sprouted another head. Hiashi wasn't surprised. Even he hardly believed the words he that had come out of his mouth. But he would do it. For his daughters, for the entire clan, he would fight their fate.

Suddenly, life felt as if it had more meaning.

* * *

 **Bit shorter than usual, but there is going to be a small time skip now, so I can't really add anything here unless you want the Hokage's reaction to recent events.**

 **Rin has pretty much stuck up her middle finger to the majority of the Clan at this point. She drew a line and said, 'cross it and die.'**


	8. Chapter 8

"Just relax. You don't want to force it. Just remember what I showed you and take it slow. Twist it slightly and when you feel the pull just go with it." Rin said softly into Hinata's ear as the little sister breathed slowly, trying to focus. "Alright, now pull your hands apart slowly."

As Hinata's hands moved away from one and other, thin lines of light blue chakra stretched between the two hands, connecting them finger to finger. The little girl gave a short gasp before a smile spread across her face. The now four and a half year old Hinata nearly bounced in Rin's lap as she shout in triumph. "I did it! Look Onee-san, I did it!"

Rin chuckled at her little sister's excitement before grabbing onto Hinata's sides, causing the ticklish girl to give a short 'Eep'. The chakra threads were forgotten as Rin tickled the little girl. "Of course you did it silly. I never doubted that you would get it. Your such a talented little thing." Rin said cheerfully, before wrapping her little sister in a bear hug.

But after Hinata's soft giggles quieted, the small girl looked down a little. "Am I really talented, Onee-san?" She asked seeming a little embarrassed by the question.

"No doubt, I don't think there is anything you can't do if you put your mind to it." Rin said with a sharp nod, trying to reassure the timid girl.

"Oji-san doesn't think that. He says I'm not as good as you and Neji-nii." Hinata said her eyes looking down cast.

Rin's mouth twitched at the mention of the elder, but she quickly hide it. Giving a short sigh, she leaned down and placed her chin on Hinata's shoulder. "Hinata-chan, there are only two things that are truly infinite; the Root and the stupidity of the male sex." Rin said gently.

"Huh?" Hinata looked up in surprise.

"All men are idiots. You really shouldn't put too much weight into what one says." Rin told her little sister.

"E...even Shirou-nii?" Hinata asked. The little girl had taken to seeing Shirou as an older brother figure. It had taken a while, since she was so shy, but Shirou was a patient sort, and Rin had brought Hinata to see him quite a lot.

Ever since the incident with the Caged Bird Seal nine months back, Rin hadn't left Hinata alone on the Clan grounds for a moment. So she had taken to bringing the girl with her to Shirou's instead. This did mean that she had to simply walk out the front door rather than sneaking out, but her father had, surprisingly enough, given his blessings and merely required that they have an escort for on the way there and back.

"Especially Shirou-nii. Shirou is the stupidest of them all. He could move mountains through the sheer force of his idiocy." Rin said with something between a chuckle and a sigh as she shook her head.

"I thought Onee-san liked Shirou-nii?" Hinata said looking back at her older sister. The innocent child had no idea how true those words were.

"Oh Hinata-chan, that is exactly the reason why I like Shirou so much." Rin said, confusing the girl even further. "Someday, you will have an idiot of your very own, and then you will understand what I mean."

Hinata gave a small pout, like all children, she didn't like to be told 'you will understand someday'. She wanted her sister to explain it to her now. But before she could start trying to press for an explanation, someone else entered their little training area in the garden and interrupted the sisterly moment.

"Hikaru-sama, Hinata-sama." Hakaku's voice was as disappointed as ever as the tutor stood in the doorway, practically glaring at the two small girls. Rin really hated this guy. Does he not know that you should never enter a girl's room without knocking first? "You two should be preparing for your survival training lesson."

"Should we? I was under the impression that our Otou-san wished to give us that training and had to reschedule it because of the peace talks." Rin said, placing one hand on Hinata's shoulder as the timid girl tried to melt backwards into her older sister.

Even if the members of the clan were all pretty much related, that didn't make them family. Rin probably only knew about half of them by face and even less of them by name. To Hinata, most were strangers and those who weren't hadn't been all too kind to her. It was hard on her, growing up in such a militaristic family when she herself was so gentle.

It was one of the reasons that Rin had taken up training Hinata herself. The style of teaching her clan used to prepare people to become ninja wasn't effective for her, since she hesitated too much when asked to make a fist. But through games and little challenges, she learned extremely quickly.

Actually, with her natural talent at shaping chakra, Hinata would have been consider a protege in a Ninjutsu forced clan. It was only because of the Hyūga clan's focus on their eyes and Taijutsu that Hinata was not properly received.

"As these talks are likely to be taking up much of Hiashi-sama's time for the foreseeable future, he has requested that I provide you with the lesson in his stead." Hakaku said with a dry voice that made Rin wonder if he understood the concept of a child or how to deal with one. Then again, most people who had to deal with her had seemed to forget about it. Maybe because Rin herself was so unchild like.

"I see, in that case, you should wait for us by the main entrance. We will join you after..."

"No. You will not make me simply wait for you again." Hakaku said sharply, glaring down at Rin.

Rin crossed her arms and glared back, she did not like being interrupted. "So you aren't going to leave us alone?" She said sharply, a bit of warning in her voice.

"That is correct." Hakaku replied.

They glared at each other for another few moments before Rin's next words caught the man off guard. "Pervert."

"Wha?"

"Trying to force two young girls to change into their uniforms in front of you. You absolute beast. Wait until I tell Otou-san that you tried to take advantage of us in such a manner during is absence." Rin said in a dramatic fashion, acting as thought to cover herself with her hands. Hinata flushed as she looked up at Hakaku with scared eyes.

"I... that was not... you... little brat..." Hakaku couldn't figure out what to do. Finally, he turned to leave the room, saying that he would wait for them outside the house.

"You should have realized long ago that you can never beat me, baka." Rin said with some satisfaction.

"Onee-san?" Hinata said, unsure what was going on.

Rin smiled down at her little sister. "Well, since it seems were going to be stuck with Mr. Grumpy today, how about we have a bit of fun. I'll call Shirou-chan and Naruto-kun to meet us out there and we can all have a picnic." Hinata's face brighten up, showing how much she liked the idea. So once Hinata and Rin had changed into their uniforms, Rin went to the phone to call up Shirou.

It was one of the things that was interesting about this world, looking at what technology they had and what was missing. Construction equipment, refrigeration, phones, and the like were all there, but at the same time, no one owned a car.

The phones were not as useful as they had been in her old world though. Without the space race, there were no satellites, and without those, no calling people who weren't connected by a land line. So you could only call people who were in the same village. She had heard that some people tried to set up lines between villages, but the telephone poles would always be torn down by rival villages. So while you could call anyone inside of the village, information between villages had to use radio, and if the range was too great for that, they resorted to carrier pigeons.

Still, it beat having to go through the annoyance and drain of casting a two way communication spell.

Rin picked up the phone and started dialing the number before waiting for Shirou to pick up.

* * *

"Alright... sure... What!? You're inviting us, but I have to provide all the food?.. Yeah... Yeah... Y...yeah... Fine. I'll meet you out there in about an hour... See you there... Bye." Shirou said before hanging up the phone, then he gave a short sigh. He had been planning on practicing his magic that day, but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. "Any time she's doing something she won't give anyone the time of day, but when she wants to go on a picnic, suddenly everyone else has to drop what they are doing for her."

"Oh, a picnic huh? Sounds like fun." Anko said. Shirou looked up to find her standing on the ceiling above him. She hung there, using her chakra to mount herself to one of the beams that stretched across the ceiling, a wide smile on her face.

"Anko-nee, spying on people is rude." Shirou scolded the older girl. He tried not to react to her sudden appearances. It would only encourage her.

"You do remember that being a spy is my job, right?" Anko teased before detracting from the ceiling and flipping down behind Shirou, draping her arms onto his shoulders. "Now don't change the subject. I heard you mention a picnic. I hope you and the Princess were planning on inviting me."

Shirou flushed and tried to fight his way out of the crazy girl's grip. "Don't you have to go to work? You can't just keep ditching it because you want to play around."

"Ah! But Shirou-chan, what about my free food!?" Anko whined in the manner of a child. She started to squeeze Shirou's head into her matured chest, embarrassing the boy even further.

"Fine! I'll make you something, just get off of me!" Shirou finally shouted, receiving a squeal of delight from the purple haired spy. "Remind me again who is supposed to be taking care of who?" He grumbled once he was fully free.

"Oh, don't be like that. You know you love me." Anko said with a smile.

"Yeah, sure I do." Shirou said, rolling his eyes before sighing heavily. "Hey, have you seen Naruto-kun around?"

Anko stopped in the middle of a little victory dance and tilted her head. "Last I saw, the little fox was trying to get into the hen house again."

Shirou groaned again before making his way out of the house and back towards a small area behind it. A while back he had decided to keep his own egg laying chickens. The problem was, the chickens and Naruto didn't get alone.

The moment he left the house he could hear the noise coming from the chicken's penned off area. "Not again." Shirou said as he saw Naruto underneath a dozen chickens, all of them pecking and scratching at him as the four year old boy tried in vein to get away.

"Shirou-san! Help me!" Naruto cried out. Shirou came in and pushed the birds away from Naruto who immediately rushed out of the caged off area. Once out, he sat down on the ground, mopping to himself. "*sniff* stupid birds. *sniff* I'll get them next time."

"I thought I told you to just leave them alone." Shirou said, shaking his head. Shirou sometimes wondered if the chickens could somehow sense the demon inside of Naruto. Most domesticated animals couldn't, as they had lost their tie with nature, but the chickens seemed unnaturally angry with the small boy.

"They started it!" Naruto shouted angrily, giving Shirou a strong pout. "I'll show them who's boss. Then they'll be sorry." Shirou couldn't help but feel like it was all rather pathetic.

He didn't bother to ask if Naruto was alright. Shirou could see for himself. Right before his eyes, the cuts and scraps from the birds were disappearing, healing so fast that there was no sign they had ever happened after just a few seconds. The demon's regenerative abilities were impressive. Naruto himself was oblivious to this fact. He was too young to understand that there was anything different about him.

Naruto living in Shirou's home had been a trip for Shirou. It had taken him over a month to get used to the boy's presence being so close. He hadn't been able to sleep at all at first because the strange distortion the demon made caused his skin to crawl. But in the end, Rin had been right. Shirou couldn't bring himself to kill an innocent child. Not while there was still the spark of hope.

Though the research that Rin had done also was a bit of a roller-coaster. At times even Rin had panicked.

First came the understanding that there were eight other people like Naruto. Once you knew they existed, some of them were pretty easy to identify. If they were supposed to be a secret, they were the worst kept secret in existence.

Two in particular gave made Shirou's point of Naruto being dangerous all the more creditable. One was a boy the same age as Naruto who lived in the Land of Wind. The stories of the three year old carrying a Teddy bear killing off fully trained ninja by crushing them in sand until their blood squirted out of there bodies was more than a little disturbing. A second set of reports had to do with another child, a six year old who became the Mizukage of Kirigakure and then forced the other children to murder each other in order to prove there loyalty to him. Things in Kirigakure were so bad that it was being referred to as the 'Village of the Bloody Mist'. Naruto could easily end up just the same. It also made them a little worried about his dream of becoming the next Hokage.

Then there was the seal that was placed on Naruto. It had four layers, but Rin had only been able to access the two outermost ones. What she found she didn't like.

The first layer was alright, a simply system for dividing Naruto and the demon's consciousness, but the second layer had her worried. For some reason, one that they couldn't began to comprehend, the seal was designed to have any of the demon's chakra that leaked out of the seal filtered into Naruto's body, rather than dispersing it into the outside air. Such a thing was insane. Any normal human boy would have been fully possessed in an instant. Hell, most people would die for that much chakra entering their body.

If the seal had been placed on anyone other than Naruto, it wouldn't have lasted. But because it was Naruto, there was still hope.

When Rin had first noticed it, she believed that Naruto must not have really been human. She thought he must have been some kind of product of bioengineering because it seemed so unreal for it to exist naturally.

Uzumaki Naruto had a B rank magic resistance.

Naruto had a massive amount of his own chakra inside of his body, and his chakra coils were roughly ten time the size of anyone else's, providing him with an inherent resistance against magic. His innate resistance to mystic energy was around the same level as Saber's. If he was actually trained then it could probably be brought up to an A rank.

It was only because of this resistance that he managed to survive. It was because of this that he was able to avoid falling completely under the demon's control. Even so, it wasn't a perfect fix.

It all came down to stamina.

As Naruto's physical and emotional stamina was drained, his own chakra levels would decrease causing more and more of the demon's energy to be absorbed into his body. Coupled with the fact that the demon got stronger then more blood thirst there was, and things could very easily turn out badly if Naruto ever found himself in a serious battle.

Even though his magic resistance wasn't a solution, it did mean that they would have time. Time needed to find out a way of removing and destroying the demon without killing Naruto himself. A task that had never been completed on such a serious case of possession.

"Shirou-san!" Naruto said, snapping Shirou out of his thoughts.

"Just go back inside and clean yourself up. Rin and Hinata-chan called. We're going to be having a picnic." Shirou told the boy. Naruto's face little up and he started to bounce around.

"A picnic! Really! Yahoo!" He shouted happily. He rushed inside to go get himself washed. Leaving Shirou to simply shake his head before returning inside himself. Though while Naruto went to the bathroom to get clean, Shirou went to the kitchen.

Life was chaotic in the village, though at the same time it was rather peaceful. Shirou liked it. Though deep down, he knew that things were eventually going to become complicated.

They always seemed to.

* * *

 **This was just a little section to show the time skip had happened and to set up a bit for what is going to happen during the next few chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9

Rin had lost since decided that whoever said that the wild nature was beautiful was mostly full of shit. Sure there were some scenes that from a distance looked nice, like from the top of a cliff. But once you actually got down into real wild nature and not some nature path, you found that it was actually a giant pain in the ass.

The ground was uneven, brush and small trees were everywhere, either forcing you to muscle through or take the extra time to find your way around them, most of the time getting scratched by several barbs or branches in the process. And even where these problems didn't come into play, the grass was always overgrown and was uncomfortable against your ankles and lower legs, hiding sticks that were just waiting to strip the unsuspecting passerby.

Yes, true wild nature really was not the magus's thing. Not surprising really. Gaia hated her and she hated Gaia. Though the fact that forest reminded her of Berserker chasing them during the Holy Grail War didn'd help make it appealing to her.

The Clan's private training forest was huge and hardly ever used. They rarely did survival training, usually focusing on combat training instead. Survival wasn't all that difficult for them anyways. With the Byakugan eyes, they could see every wild animal and moving water source for roughly a mile around.

Rin was dwelling on this fact herself as she and Hinata moved towards where their eyes told them there would be a stream and a small clearing. With a simple Earth Jutsu, she would be able to flatten a patch of ground easily enough. It might make a decent spot for their picnic.

Hakaku had only given them brief instructions on how to survive and what to priorities finding before just releasing them into the wilds to fend for themselves. Which was probably the entire point of it. It was still rather odd that he didn't stay in range of the Byakugan in order to make sure that the little heirs were alright.

Hinata herself was having a much better time than her older sister. The little girl still had the child's wonder about her, viewing every little thing as a new experience. Each rabbit hole was a new adventure to her.

The stream was crystal clear, fish and turtles easily visible underneath the surface of the water, though like everything else in nature, there was something there to spoil it. The stink of wild onions was everywhere, though this too fascinated Hinata more than it upset the girl, so Rin decided to just bare with it.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow." Rin said, using her jutsu to turn the soil around them, burying the grasses before condensing the mud into an even patch of compact earth to sit on. Hinata clapped at the casual display of her older sister's power. "Well, this spot shall do nicely. How about we practice your Water Chakra while we wait for the boys?" Rin said, gesturing towards the stream.

Hinata nodded, but still had a question. "How are Shirou-nii and Naruto-kun going to find us?" She asked as she knelt by the stream and began to play with moving her own Chakra into the water.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Shirou is practically a blood hound. He'll find us." Rin said, crossing her arms and nodding knowingly.

"Really?" Hinata said looking back the way they came, back towards the village. "Byakugan!" She said sharply, forcing the Chakra paths in her eyes to open wider and activate her eye's blood line. She frowned with concentration, as the technique was a little awkward for her to use, but a smile spread across her face. "I see them!" She said happily, though the smile slowly faded. "That's not them. Who is that?"

Rin also frowned, activating her own Byakugan and scanning the forest. As she took everything in, she started to tense up more and more.

There weren't just two humans coming towards them. There were seventeen, meaning four separate four man team lead by a squad leader, coming from all directions, each having entered the range of the Byakugan eyes at roughly the same time, and Rin couldn't recognize a single one of them. To make matters worse, they were moving fast.

"Onee-san?" Hinata asked nervously, seeing her older sister face go serious.

Rin blinked and forced a playful smile onto her face. "Well, it looks like somebody wants to play hide and seek with us. Maybe it is part of the 'survival training'. Lets make them work for it." She said before scooping Hinata up in her arms and reinforcing her body.

She jumped up into the trees, using her Byakugan eyes to navigate the branches as best she could, keeping away from tight clumps as she made for a gap in the circle that was closing around them. But to her surprise and dread, the people who were attempting to surround her seemed to be anticipating her moves.

She couldn't move fast enough to escape, not while holding onto Hinata, but she would sooner abandon her own arm, Magic Crest and all, than let go of Hinata. Finally, she spotted something that she never thought she would be happy to see. Hakaku seemed to have noticed what was going on and was moving to reach her.

The man might not have been that skilled by Rin's standards, and wouldn't tip the balance in a seventeen on one fight, but if Rin held them back, he might be able to get Hinata to safety. Then she would just have to buy time until Shirou arrived. Then the two of them could give these bastards hell.

She tried to move towards Hakaku, but it was no good, the circle was being draw in around her and they had less than a minute before they would be caught. "Onee-san, they going to get us." Hinata said, holding tight to her sister's neck as they went.

Rin bit her lip, trying to think, before jumping down out of the tree line and making for a small mound of rocks. "Hold on tight, Hinata-chan. I'm going to try something." With Hinata holding even tighter around her neck, Rin freed her hands. Ram. Dog. Rat. Bird. "Earth Release: Tunnel Jutsu."

Her jutsu opened up a hole in the stone face, which she quickly hide in before closing up the gap behind them. "Onee-san, it's dark." Hinata said as Rin put her down and leaned up against the wall, feeling her legs and arms giving protest from the earlier mad run.

"I know, but we will be safe here. So please try to endure." Rin said patting the girl's head. She could have used a jutsu or some magic to give them light, but she felt that she should conserve her strength. "Hurry it the hell up Shirou." She mumbled to herself.

But as they hide in their make shift shelter, the unthinkable happened. Rather than being passed by, the seventeen men clumped together and then made directly for their hiding spot, quickly surrounding it. Hinata screamed as an explosion hit the covering on their tunnel, blowing it to pieces. Rin registered that it came from a lightning jutsu.

"Well what do we have here? Two little Hyūga girls, all on their lonesome." An older man said. Rin quickly sized him up, as he stood at between them and freedom.

The man seemed to be in his early fifties, with dark skin and red hair that was in tight braids. He had an unpleasant boxed face with his left eyes was covered in a long bandage and a scar on his right cheek. On his back was a long sword, the length of his whole body with a strange guard around the hilt.

But all of this seemed secondary compared to the single item hanging around his neck; a headband with three rounded rectangles that were supposed to bare resemblance to clouds. Kumo ninja.

"How about you two come out quietly. Hate to have the goods get hurt, though if we need to rough you up we will." The man said, gesturing to the little girls to come out.

Rin reached into an inner pocket of her uniform, bringing out a large red jewel. "I don't think so. I've still have more than a few tricks up my sleeve." She said with a smile, using a small amount of her prana to activate the energy within the mystic codex. As it glowed bright red, she dropped it.

The gem hit the ground, it passed into the stone surface like a drop of blood into a bowl of water, its color quickly webbing out to the surrounding rocks. The ground shook as the rock formation came to life, changing shape into a massive golem that towered over the nearby trees.

The ninja was shocked, but not so shocked that he didn't move out of the way when the fist of the rock monster was aimed for him.

Using the moment of distraction, Rin picked up Hinata again, and formed a few quick hand signs to preform a basic Bushin technique, using the body double projections to try to confuse her enemies as she made her escape.

She slipped through the circle and kept running, reinforcing her legs as much as she dared, hoping that it would be enough to keep her a step ahead of her pursuers.

A loud crack of thunder accompanied the destruction of her golem. Rin hoped that they would be slightly confused as to which direction she had gone, but just like before, they immediately found her trail and were on her. They must have had some kind of tracker ninja with them.

Rin fingered her two remaining jewels. One could produce a sound proof barrier, that wouldn't do her any good now. The other could amplify one of her Gandr curses. It would make the curse stronger so that even if someone placed a guard up to protect themselves against such attacks, the damage would still be heavy. Didn't change the fact that it would be a single target spell, and it was a one time deal.

She was kicking herself for not bringing more options along. Peace must have made her complacent. After today, she would need to make sure she wasn't caught off guard again. She throw out the sound proof barrier, just so she wouldn't be captured with it, then she primed her Gandr to kill the first person who managed to catch up to her. Maybe it would be enough to give them pause about pursuing her.

It wasn't long before the Kumo ninja started to catch up. The first to try to grab her was a young man, looked like he was in his early teens, too inexperienced to have any caution, even after seeing Rin's displays upto that point.

Rin swung the jewel at him and let out the curse. The blast of it was strong as a cannon ball, the young man's entire body crumpled as his bones were broken and several of his vitals were crushed.

No sooner was the spell finished did the jewel crumble into dust, useless. Rin put the now free hand around Hinata and strived to move faster.

Luckily, it seemed that the display had made the others more hesitant about trying to grab her. But that didn't stop them for long. They didn't have to grab her to stop her forward progress.

It was a Wind Jutsu of some kind. One meant for cutting. Whoever fired it had aimed for the branch that Rin had been jumping to. With her next perch gone, Rin found herself falling down a lot further and faster than expected. Based solely on the instinct to protect Hinata, Rin twisted herself in midair, so that she would shelter her little sister during the impact with the ground, then she reinforced her body and clothes to harden herself for the impact.

It hurt, crashing into the ground like that. She wondered how Shirou could always just brush himself off after sustaining such blows. It had been about a fifteen foot drop, and it had knocked the air out of Rin's lungs. But as her head stopped spinning, she recognized Hakaku moving towards them.

Hinata was crying with fright, as Rin pushed herself up. "Take Hinata and go!" Rin ordered handing the small girl over to her tutor.

"Onee-san! Don't leave! I'm..!" Hinata cried, unsure what was going on.

"Don't worry. I'll be alright. Just get to safety." Rin said before turning back to the attacking ninja and took a deep breath. Dragon. Rabbit. Tiger. "Fire Release: Breath of Fire." A small stream of fire escaped Rin's mouth, burning the trees in front of her and creating a wall of fire in hopes of stalling the enemy.

Rin took a few breaths, trying to collect herself for a fight when a laugh came from the other side of the fire. "You really are deserving of your reputation, White Eyed Witch of Konoha. To think that such a young brat could cause us so much trouble. But it is high time you stop all this running." A water jutsu rushed out of the trees, putting out the flames that Rin had produced. Standing there was the man from before, grinning at her.

"I suppose it is about time for me to stand my ground." Rin said in her cocky manner, preparing a rune with one foot while transforming some of her chakra for a jutsu.

The old man laughed. "You can neither fight or run now. We have already won."

Hinata screamed and Rin spun around to find Hakaku holding a kunai to Hinata's throat. "I suggest you stop struggling, Hikaru-sama." Hakaku said as he glared down at her. Though if he was glaring, Rin's look was one that could turn Rider into stone.

"You traitorous bastard." Rin hissed. She wanted to do nothing more than launch a bolt of lightning through the man's head, but she couldn't do anything that might get Hinata hurt. The little sister was completely white with fear by this point.

"I am no traitor. Everything I do I do for the clan." Hakaku said. "You are a threat and your sister is unworthy. With your mother pregnant, the two of you need to disappear. That is what is best for the clan."

While he talked, the Kumo ninja moved in, binding Rin's arms and legs with rope that would seal her mystic energies and gagging her. Another did the same to Hinata. All the while, Hakaku stood there, glaring at the two girls until they were taken away.

"Well done. You fulfilled your end of it quite nicely." The old man who lead the foriegn ninja said, a grin on his face. "So how are we to do this now? You want us to rough you up a little? Make it look like we took them by force?"

Hakaku's glare transferred over to the Kumo ninja. "No. For what I have done, there is only one possible ending. I will not run from my fate." He said, pulling out a short blade. Some of the ninja stiffened at the sight of the weapon. It was not one meant for fighting.

"Seppuku huh? I forgot your clan still practiced that garbage. You think you're some kind of Samurai?" The ninja spat, he looked around at his underlings. "Nura! Stay behind to provide the mercy blow, then catch up with us! The rest of you head out!"

"Sir!" They all said at once.

Nura was a young man, no older than sixteen with pale skin and rough sandy hair. After all the others had left, Hakaku went down on his knees while Nura stood behind him, unsheathing a long katana.

Hakaku drew out his tantou blade and preceded to draw the edge of it across his abdomen from left to right. The gasp of pain escaped him as he dropped the blade, falling forward as his guts started to spill out.

Nura lifted his blade high, but then lowered it slowly. "You damned bastard." He growled, providing a kick to the already suffering man, rather than the mercy blow that would save him from the horribly slow death that awaited him. He even kicked the short blade further away from the man so that he couldn't end his life quicker. "To do something like this..."

Nura hated this. He hated everything about it. He might have been against making peace with Konoha, but to use the peace talks in order to kidnap children. Such a thing was beyond simply dishonorable. It was vial beyond words. Especially when one considered the fate that waited the two girls when they reached Kumo.

He tried not to think about it, but he knew exactly what would happen to them. First they would be tortured for whatever knowledge they possessed. Then jutsu would be used on them to cripple their minds and bodies so that they couldn't take their own lives. Their eyes would be cut out, transplanted into other hosts, high ranking ninjas most likely. Then they would be kept alive in their agony until they were old enough to have children, after which they would be raped time and time again in order to produce children who would be made to serve as ninja in Kumo's army.

To be involved in something like this was to much for the young man to bare. So rather than making his way to catch up to his group, he turned back to the village. Even if it went against the things he had been taught all his life, that he must always put his village first. He would not and could not stand for this. Perhaps if the girls could be saved, he could find his redemption.

* * *

 **Again, shortish chapter, but I'm not making these thing long. Besides, its heavy enough as it is.**


	10. Chapter 10

Shirou had long since dropped the picnic basket and broken into a run, ignoring the confused shouts of Naruto as the small child tried to keep up with him.

He could smell it in the air, something had happened. The residual energy from both jutsu and high ranking magecraft lingered in the still forest. He tried to judge the time that had expired since the original castings. He would say it was somewhere in the ball park of twenty minutes. As he got closer and closer he could start to count the different signatures from the people that had been there; twenty in all, including Rin, Hinata and that tutor of theirs.

Though it wasn't until he was nearly on top of the sight that he smelled the more mundane if no less identifiable smells. The smell of smoke and the smell of blood.

Hakaku's body lay dead on the ground, his own blade telling Shirou exactly who had cut him. He had taken his own life, though that didn't explain much, it was apparent to Shirou.

Looking around, he couldn't find Rin or Hinata's bodies anyways. He started to scan the air in order to pick up the trail. He had to count on that the two of them were still alive.

"Shirou-san! Why did you just bolt off like that! You ruined the foo..." Naruto's words died as he came in on the spot. He looked over at the burned trees with confusion, and then he stared at Hakaku's dead body. "Why... why is Bastard-sensei bleeding?" Naruto said. He took a few slow steps towards the body. "Bastard-sensei. Bastard-sensei! Why isn't he saying anything? Why... why isn't Bastard-sensei moving?"

Shirou looked at the short blond child. Naruto was starting to shiver, his head shaking as he was being confronted with death for the first time.

Shirou closed the distance between himself and Naruto, quickly covering the younger boy's eyes. "Don't look at it, Naruto." He said, pulling Naruto away from the body.

"Shirou. What's going on? Why isn't Bastard-sensei yelling at us?" Naruto asked.

"He can't Naruto. He's dead." Shirou said, trying to keep his voice calm. He had a strong hand on Naruto's shoulders, stopping him from turning back around to look at the body. Naruto was bordering complete shock. "Naruto-kun. I need you to listen carefully. Something bad has happened, and I need you to go back to the village and tell everyone you can that Rin and Hinata-chan are in trouble."

"But... what are you going..." Naruto didn't even have time to finish the question.

Shirou had found the trail he had been looking for. Reinforcing his body to the absolute limit, he took off, moving at a speed that few could hope to match. He held to the trail of mystic energies left behind by whoever had attacked Rin and Hinata.

Years of training flowing through him, more than an entire life time. It steadied his breathing and removed all unnecessary thought from his mind. He felt it. A purpose. A call to battle. He was a sword, tempered in fire, sharpened to a fine edge, and it was now time for him to leave his sheath. He was being drawn to guard those under his protection, and to cut down all that stood in his way.

* * *

The group of Kumo ninja had been running at a steady pace for over a hour when they reached a large stream and the second in command called for a quick break so that the tired boys could get a drink. "Take five, people!" Daisuke shouted out to the group. Some of the younger ones looked a little unsteady on their feet at the moment, but even they knew better than to complain.

You didn't kidnap the daughters of a powerful clan right after signing a peace treaty and stick around for when the thing blew up in your face. Not only that, but their target was a clan of Konoha. The village had a reputation for the 'all for one and one for all' attitude. When word got out they would have somewhere in the hundreds of ninja on their asses. A lot of whom were considered to be very very vindictive. If they were caught, a quick death would be a blessing.

"Pathetic. The youth of today don't have any stamina." Reid grumbled as the older man stared over the group. He was absent mindedly rubbing his temple, and scratching at the bandages that covered his left eyes.

"Sir, Nura hasn't rejoined the group yet." Daisuke mumbled to the older man.

"Kid's deserted." Reid said in a mater of fact tone. "All the more reason for us to keep moving."

Daisuke's mouth twitched. "Well, can't say I'm surprised. We screened people for a bodyguard and escort job, not Black Ops. Most of these boys wouldn't be my first choices to bring on this kind of deal."

"A ninja should be open for when opportunity presents itself." Reid replied with a shrug.

Daisuke nodded. "Still, its a shame. His kind are hard to come by."

"His kind are a dime a dozen when compared to even a single pair of Byakugan eyes." Reid said, glancing back at the two tired up little girls. The older one was still glaring at him with a look that could make lesser men shiver. She didn't show any sign of fear, just indignant rage. "And that White Eyed Witch ain't normal even by their standards. I don't even know what to make of her. Haven't seen anything like it in all my years. Now I get why he thought she's possessed by some kind of demon. Its not even just her strange jutsus, the way she acts is unnatural. She killed one of our boys without a second thought. Even some senor ninja hesitate for a brief moment, but she didn't even break stride. She's some kind of mutant freak."

"You think she's a jinchūriki?" Daisuke asked, raising a nerves eyebrow. He had seen his fair share of what the human veils could do when pushed, and he would rather not be on the receiving end of it. Even if the girl was a child, you simply don't mess with jinchūriki unless you have a death wish.

"You think we would have been able to keep her down with just those sealing binds if she was? No, she's no jinchūriki, her chakra levels are high for a child, but not 'that' high. I don't know what she is." Reid said with a sharp shake of the head. "We need to keep moving. I don't know how long it will be before someone starts to wonder where we went. I'd rather be further away from Konoha than this before they release their hounds."

Daisuke grunted in agreement. "Alright everyone, form up! We're moving!" There were a few groans but everyone did start to form up.

Towards the back, were the two who had to carry the girls. "Come on, stop struggling you brat." The man who had been made to carry Rin said, as she tried to knee him in the face with her bound legs.

"Hurry it up, we need to get moving." The man holding Hinata said.

"Easy for you to say. This one hasn't stop squirming since we started." The first man replied.

"Fine, we'll switch if it means..." The second man's words stopped short as an arrow was logged in his throat. Before the first man even had time to react, a second arrow struck him between the eyes.

The both of them fell down dead, but not before the call went out. "Archers!"

Dozens of arrows flew from the forest in front of the group, raining down on the ninja who preceded to dodge or parry the in coming arrows.

"What the hell, was there an ambush waiting for us!?"

"How many of them are there?"

"Have to be at least six."

"No. There's only one." Reid said as he swatted one of the arrows out of the air with the back of his hand. "Come out of the trees boy. I know you're there!" He shouted, forming a few hand signs. "Lightning Release: Lightning Strike." A coil of electricity jumped from one of his hands, snaking its way through the air to smash into the tree line, kicking up dust as the explosion knocked down a few trees.

The remaining Kumo ninja were shocked as a small boy with bright pink hair walked out of the smoke. He held a compact bow in his right hand, though with his small body, it might as well been a long bow. A few of the more experienced ninja in their group noticed the strange lack of a quiver.

"It's just some brat kid." One of the Chunin said, pulling out a dagger. "I'll deal with him."

"Stop dumbass!" Reid shouted, but the young man went running in.

The boy didn't move a muscle, not until the dagger was already being thrust at him. His movements were smooth, pivoting his body out of the way as he raised his bow, slipping it around the young man's extended arm. Then, while the ninja's body was still extended out from the downwards thrust, the boy struck his bow, snapping the man's arm out straight before throwing him off balance to slam face first into the ground.

The hand on the top of the bow moved up and grabbed at something that wasn't there and in the blink of an eye and a small flash of blue light, a curved dagger formed in the boy's hand, one in a style that was unfamiliar to the ninja. Holding the dagger in a backhanded grip, he plunged it down into the base of his attacker's neck, severing the spin. Then he tossed the weapon into the air, catching it in a loose grip and flinging it across the field towards another target.

Even before the blade reached the man, the boy already had another arrow on the string, just like the dagger, the arrow appeared out of nowhere, with only a small flash of blue light.

The arrow was timed perfectly so that as the man swung up his sword to deflect the dagger that was aimed at his head, the arrow penetrated the gap in his white jounin breast plate around the right shoulder. The man's blade arm was rendered useless as a second arrow came straight for his head.

Reid stepped in, snatching the arrow out of the air with his bare hand before it could secure the kill. "Thanks." The man grunted, switching his sword to his inferior left hand as he tried to prepare himself for further attacks.

Reid didn't listen, he was focused on the boy, and on the arrow in his hand. He snapped the wood between his fingers and it dissolved into blue fragments of light. "What the hell?" He mumbled to himself.

The veteran had never seen any jutsu like this one before in his life. There had been no hand signs or use of scrolls. The boy seemed to be making the arrows out of chakra, but the chakra itself was unusual, much like the girl's.

The child continued his assault, notching three or even four arrows at a time and firing them with the kind of accuracy that one would expect from a jounin, not some preschooler. And while they continued to dodge the arrows or deflect them, the boy started to do something that was downright puzzling. He started to speak. The words seemed like nonsense, they weren't about anything or directed at anyone.

"Trace on. Begin projection. Ending resonance of possession experience. Processes, completed. All projections, standby." As he spoke, the air around him seemed to change. Sword appeared, suspended by invisible hands, just a few at first, but the number grew rapidly until they were hard to count. "Ceasing decompression, all projections successive fire!"

The swords shot through the air, moving faster than the arrows, and with the added weight behind them making they impossible to parry, the Kumo ninja had to dodge for their lives.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" Daisuke shouted, slamming his hands against the ground and forming up a large wall between himself and the raining swords. His comrades moved in behind the wall in order to take up shelter from the onslaught of blades. The sound of the swords hitting the wall was similar to heavy rain against a tin roof as Daisuke had to continuously fuel the wall in order to stop it from breaking apart.

"Just hold on. He can't keep this up forever." Reid instructed his right hand man.

Daisuke never replied. A shadow appeared above them. The boy had ran through the storm of swords he had unleashed and jumped over the wall of compacted earth. He released an arrow that flew down and through Daisuke's head, killing the man.

Without Daisuke's chakra reinforcing it, the stone wall broke apart, half burying the ninja who had been trying to hide behind it, and leaving them again to try to fend of the swords.

"Monster. These kids are fucking monsters." Reid growled as he tried to keep out of the way of the swords. It wasn't until the number of blades suddenly dropped that he noticed where the boy was. He had moved past them all and was bending over the tied up girls, cutting their bonds. "Dammit!" He formed his hand signs again and launched another lightning strike at the boy, attempting to stop him, but it never reached.

"Wind Release: Wind Wall." A short pillar of high winds encircled the children, batting the lightning jutsu to the side.

When the wind died down, the White Eyed Witch was standing there, rubbing his wrists and casually rolling her elbows. "You're late." She said, presumably to the boy.

"Sorry, but maybe I would have been here sooner if you hadn't made me do all the cooking, Master." The boy said in his own slightly sarcastic tone.

"Just make sure you are more punctual next time. Making a girl wait isn't something you should make a habit of." The girl responded before turning a cold glare towards the Kumo ninja. The swords had stopped flying through the air and she now had their undivided attention. "Well, you all wanted to see what my eyes can do, right? Then let me show you!"

The remaining Kumo ninja all froze as twin golden suns appeared in the girl's white eyes. The unexpected Genjutsu style skill rooting them all to the spot. The girl started to make rapid hand signs. Rat. Snake. Tiger. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Wave!"

The ground around the children exploded in a sort of horizontal rock slide, with the jagged stones rushing towards the paralyzed ninja. Most of them quickly fought off the effects of the girl's eyes and managed to jump out of the way, but two of the remaining genin were hit head on and crushed to death, and the already injured jounin found himself jumping out of the way of the rocks only to fall victim to an arrow between the eyes.

After the attack was through, Reid looked over what remained of his men. Where he had started the day with four jounin, nine chunin, and three genin, he now was down to only two jounin and four chunin. After you took out the deserter, that left eight trained ninja all killed by two little kids. "Boys back home are going to laugh about this." He grumbled, wondering where down the line he had fucked up so royally. "How humiliating."


	11. Chapter 11

In order to drive the targets away from Rin and Hinata, Shirou had made a bold move. With her Byakugan eyes, Rin could count all one thousand one hundred and twenty five swords that now littered the field.

The Thaumaturgy surrounding his 'Sword Barrels' skill revolved around a self-hypnosis that takes advantage of the human tendency to preform a certain type of logical fallacy; saying that a group as a whole possesses a quality because the members within possess that same quality, sometimes described as a false abstraction. For example, all the members in a group have five balls, therefore the group has five balls. In Shirou's case, a group of swords must itself be a sword.

Through this technique, he could work around the limited working memory for storing blades after they have been traced but before they have been projected into reality, the limit usually being around eight blades at a time. By grouping several hundreds of blades together and treating them as if they were only a single sword he could push them all into a single one of those eight slots, letting him bring out a practical wave of swords at once.

However it wasn't without its shortcomings. The blades still had to be traced one by one before being added to the group, and there was a mental strain to maintain the hypnosis, making it impossible to store the traced swords forever. Also, since the group was not in truth a sword, he could not save them together as a blueprint in his Unlimited Blade Works for later use.

Shirou at his best could trace three mundane swords a second. Time that number by sixty seconds in a minute and then times it by sixty again to convert into hours and you have roughly one thousand eighty swords an hour. In order to prepare another assault like the one he had just unleashed, Shirou would need another hour to prepare.

Not only that, he had now gone from the offensive position of attacking a group that was completely unaware of his abilities, to a defensive position, having to stand between the group of ninja and the girls he had come to rescue, with the skill set of the ninja largely unknown beyond what he could learn from their weapons and the vague at best information from his sixth sense.

For Emiya Shirou, this would be no problem at all. For Ena Kuroshi, there were several problems. Though he could create any sword in his unlimited collection, he lacked the physical height to wield many of them properly. The reason for which he was forced to use a second rate (by his standards) bow and normal arrows in place of his usual massive black great bow and the long steel projectiles that looked more like spears than arrows.

He also lacked the fortitude to active any of the more powerful effects. If he traced and attempted to use any even mid ranking Noble Phantasm, it would more than likely crush his body with the strain, regardless his skill with reinforcement. Trying to use Caliburn would rip his arms clean off for sure.

Rin contemplated all these things in an instant, weighing her options. In a different time, she would have felt a small bit of pride, knowing such details about Shirou's abilities. The fact that he shared them with her was proof of his absolute trust in her, that and his stupidity as a magus, but mostly the trust thing. Close as they were, Rin had not always shared all of her secrets so readily as Shirou shared his with her. However, the presence of her Hinata, crying as she hugged onto Rin's side, prevented her from acting in her usual unconcerned manner.

Shirou's surprise attack had greatly cut down on the enemy's numbers, but they were still far from out of danger. Hinata was a weak point for them. If the ninja got her, then both Shirou and Rin would be forced to surrender again. But, even if Rin tried to take the little girl and run, the Kumo ninja were faster than her, and Shirou couldn't stop them all from pursuing her.

"Shirou, take my little sister and run." Rin said in English, not wanting Hinata to know that she planned on sacrificing herself. "You're faster than I am. If I buy you time so you can get her to safety."

"I'm not leaving you." Shirou said shortly, not even looking in her direction. He was already set up between the two sisters and the ninja. His bow had vanished and in his hands were the Married Blades, Kanshou and Bakuya. The black and white blades had always seemed rather fat for one hand swords, but now, with the decrease in Shirou's stature, they looked more like broad swords in his tiny hands. He was having to change his stance just to deal with the extra length. "I will save you both."

Rin glared at the back of his head, but then just sighed. "I suppose informing you that this isn't your fight would be just wasting my breath." She knew Shirou. She knew that he would not make sacrifices out of the people he cared about. Nor did he ever listen to reason.

"That's right. Words have no place on the battlefield." Shirou said before rushing forward to intercept three of the ninja who were closing in on them. Two had swords drawn while the other seemed to be bare handed, instead covering his body in Earth Chakra.

Rin gave a small smile and a shake of the head. "Then I shall entrust my fate to your sword, Emiya Shirou." She said, feeling a bit nostalgic, despite herself.

"Onee-san?" Hinata said through her tears, confused by her sister's words.

Rin patted Hinata's head and she carefully freed herself from her sister's arms. "Don't worry Hinata-chan, Shirou and I will keep you safe."

"Shirou-nii?" Hinata said, looking over at the boy as if noticing he was there for the first time. The four year old girl's eyes widened at what she saw.

Shirou was fending off three full grow ninja at the same time, keeping himself positioned so that they couldn't move around him and avoiding and countering each of their attacks. Hinata had only had a year's worth of combat training, and none of it had been with weapons, so she couldn't say much about Shirou's style. But she could see his energy flowing within him. His entire body glowing from his body's reinforcements. That strange chakra that only he and her sister had was gathered into his hands in the form of blades.

Shirou deflected another sword strike aimed for a gap he left in his right side and retaliated with a quick rush and swipe. The move was unfortunately dodged and left more openings in Shirou's stance, but that didn't matter at all. Shirou knew exactly where each opening was and which one his opponents would aim for.

Shirou would purposely leave openings in his guard in order to draw in attacks, however, he would already know where those attacks would fall and would be moving to deflect the attacks before his opponents even knew they were going to preform them. It was a skill that could never be gained through normal means. The amount of insight into your enemies forms was too great for anyone to reasonably know. If you didn't have enough knowledge, or if your timing was off by a moment, then you would die. No one could have any mastered such a stupid style. And it was because of its complete impossibility that stopped people from seeing through the technique.

His enemies had a longer reach then him, they could strike faster, and they were stronger. But none of that matter. So long as he could get the timing right, they would not be able to beat him. In a way, he was lucky that Kumogakure was a village that focused so heavily on the use of swords in conjunction with their chakra techniques.

So long as the swords were providing him key information about his enemies' timing and style, they would not be able to beat him, not without a much higher difference in power than existed between them. In truth, it was only the man who used his bare hands combined with his chakra that was giving Shirou a little trouble, though he did his best to mask that fact.

Even though the man's reach was significantly lower and his speed was not the most incredible, his chakra sat heavy around his body in an inch thick layer that was as hard as diamonds, and even Kanshou and Bakuya were unable to cut all the way through its protection.

"Blinding and Swift, what I seek is Thunder!" The pressure was relieved a bit as several bolts of lightning moved around Shirou, aiming for the ninja. The two sword weilders managed to evade, but the man in his stone like chakra armor was too slow and was struck, being nailed to the ground by Rin's lightning spell moving through his system.

Shirou took full advantage of the breathing room and began to chant. "A horrible miracle! Spring of life from bloody soil! Nobility that stems from sin! Beauty born in tragic flames! For this, I will never forget your sacrifice!"

Bright orange flames engulfed the twin blades as Shirou swung them outwards, unleashing two short waves of fire that intersected in such a way as to make them seem like two wings of a fiery bird before dissipating a few feet later, though not before pushing away the two sword ninja and covering the third in a fire which quickly burned him to a crisp.

The Fire Chakra within the blades died down until it was only present as a small network of glowing orange lines on the two different colored blades. To all the ninja it would look like a simple Chakra Flow ability, which in some ways it was, though the means for performing it was different.

Shirou had quickly found when experimenting with chakra that just like with his magecraft, his perverse perception of reality was interfering with his ability to transform the nature of the chakra. So any jutsu that required a chakra nature would be forever out of his reach. However he had deviced a small work around.

In Rin's own words, the technique "couldn't be anymore like you, Shirou". It was both a complement and a sign of tired resignation. The idea behind his new skill was ingenious, insane, impossible, and involved swords.

Even though Chakra could be channeled into object, by its very nature it would only undergo elemental transformations inside of a living being, due to the need for unique life force and spiritual energies.

It was by using his own confused reality and reinforcement magic that Shirou blurred the line between living and not living, pulling from the sword's history in order to create a pseudo spirit, allowing for the potential for chakra to be transformed. Then by connecting the sword's potential for chakra to his own chakra supplies, he could use the blade to transform the element of the chakra for him.

Now at a range, the ninja started to try to throw kunai and throwing stars at him, but Shirou simply judged the weapons' paths and moved out of the way, letting some pass just inches away from his face without so much as blinking. However, it seemed that the commander had had enough and was coming in himself.

Throwing the sheath of his six foot long tachi blade to the side, he rushed in with a two handed swing. Blue sparks erupted from the long blade as it was filled with lightning chakra, the air humming with the sound of vibrating metal.

Smoke was kicked up by the explosion of the blade rushing down into the ground. The Kumo ninja backed away from the spot, not wanting to be caught up in their commander's attacks.

At first, they had assumed that the boy would have died instantly from such an attack, but then the sound of metal striking against metal echoed out from the dust cloud before both fighters came rushing out of the smoke, continuing to exchange blows. Each time the blades met, small blue and orange sparks jumped through the air. The relentless flurry of blades dissuading any attempt to get near the two of them.

However, with the strange weapon using child driven out of the way, the remaining ninja had a clear path to the two girls who were their true targets from the beginning.

The two groups had rotated, the two remaining from the first assault against Shirou moved back as the other three pushed forward with chains and steel coils to try to retrain the children. As capturing the children was their only goal, lethal force was out of the question, even if that made things much harder for them.

Rin activated the circuits in her her magic crest, giving her access to the one line spells held within it without the need to use incantations or runes. Lifting up her left arm, she uncoiled her fingers towards the targets and started to unleash spell after spell. "Gandr! Gandr! Gandr!" The black light curses flew though the air, moving fast, but not quiet fast enough to catch the ninja, just forcing them to slow their progression in order to avoid a hit.

Once they were in range, they through their restrains at her, using their chakra to guide it.

"Kraftr!" Rin shouted with a wide sweep of her arm, releasing a pulse of prana that displaced the air and knocked the ninja tools aside. Then bringing her hands together, she started to make hand signs. Dragon. Rabbit. Tiger. "Fire Release: Breath of Fire!" The stream of fire moved too slowly to catch the ninja, but as they were forced to move back, the flames blocked their vision of the follow up. "Gandr!" The curse moved through the wall of fire and managed to catch one of the ninja on his shoulder. The blast hadn't made a good enough hit to take the man down, but muscles tissue burst in a most painful fashion as the curse did its work. Not a finishing blow, but it would take him out of using most weapons and jutsu until Rin could finish the job.

Rin didn't have time to continue to throw out curses. Her eyes drifted down to the ground where underneath the surface, she could see the two ninja who had pulled back moving about towards her and her little sister, trying to catch them off guard. Snake. Clam. Snake. Tiger. "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"

The ground turned to mud and began to move away quickly, pulling the two tunneling ninja out from underneath its surface and moving them away in a river of loose earth.

Slamming a palm onto the ground, Rin opened up her magic circuits again. "Analyzing composition. Identifying desired compounds. Hypothesising restructuring process. Alchemy." Using a basic spell, Rin brought out the more flammable elements hidden within the mud. Then, adding a spark from her Fire Chakra, she ignited it.

Fire zipped along the river of mud, towards the two ninja who were struggling to escape it. It would have roast them to a crisp if their allies hadn't stepped in. "Water Release: Water Dragon!" The water in the nearby stream came to life and jumped up in the shape of a serpent-like dragon and dove down onto the flaming soil, smothering the fire and loosening the mud to the point where the trapped ninja could escape.

Then things turned from bad to worse as Rin found the number of enemies increasing. "Summoning Jutsu!" Five large white furred tigers covered in shiny metal armor appeared from a massive burst of smoke.

"Summoning us to nab little girls. How insulting." One of the beasts growled in annoyance.

"Don't underestimate her. She isn't normal." The ninja summoner warned before instructing the ninja animals to go on the offensive. The animals formed up and began in a wide circle around the two girls, slowly drawing it in closer and closer. Rin was going through her list of spells and jutsu, trying to find one that would help when surrounded. Most of her jutsu were focused on a single direction or a short burst. She didn't have anything that could fend off an attack from all sides for more than a moment. Jutsu like that consumed too much power.

Two of the tigers began to lung from either side of her, with another preparing to follow. Chanting a quick line in Nordic she expelled a more powerful Kraftr spell, swinging her arms out wide and pivoting around to throw it in all directions, hitting all three tigers and blasting them away over fifty feet.

But when the last two came charging in a moment later, Rin was still not ready for another burst. She put her arms around Hinata, trying to use her body to shield the small girl from being hurt by the summon beasts.

The animals were just a few yards away when dozens of kunai landed on the ground in from of them. The ninja tigers were too shocked to change their path and the moment they were over the kunai, the explosive tags attached to them detonated into several clouds of multicolored smoke.

Rin looked up in confusion when she could swear she heard an actual drumroll playing. Standing inside of the smoke was a familiar character. "Never fear, for the true hero of this story has finally arrived." Anko said as the wind blew away her multicolored smoke cloud to reveal her standing triumphantly with kunai in hand. Her usual crazy smile still in place.

"Anko-nee-san?" Hinata said in surprise.

The Kumo ninja took a step back. "Mitarashi Anko." One of them said, sounding a bit put off by it.

Young as she might be, Anko was still a Tokubetsu Jounin, and a skilled one at that. Some said that the only reason she wasn't an all around Jounin was because of some uncomfortable issues in her past scaring the council, rather than any missing spots in her skill. She had made a pretty big name for herself on a curtain S-rank mission before transferring into intelligence work to make sure she never did anything that crazy ever again.

Her grand entrance, sacrificing the element of surprise said it all. She was so confident that she would slaughter these Kumo ninja, that she didn't need to take them out from the shadows.

"That's right. These little monsters are under my protection, so if you want to get at them, you will need to deal with me." Anko said, bringing up her kunai in front of her face. "Soon my fang will taste your blood." She said giving the metal blade a lick.

"Anko-san, you ditched work again? You were hoping to sneak into the picnic, weren't you?" Rin said accusingly as she returned to her feet, putting her hands on her hips and giving Anko a sly smile. "You have such a horrible work ethic."

Anko staggered a little. "H... how could you say that at a time like this!" Anko shouted, a small flush coming to her face at being called out in front of the bad guys. "I came all the way here to rescue you girls and guy and this is how you thank me!? You should be showering me in gratitude for this!"

Rin giggled. "I'm sorry. I'll make sure that Shirou treats you to some dango later."

Immediately a smile spread back across the young woman's face. "Now that is more like it!" She said, not really carrying who was watching her. A particularly large crashing sound drew her attention towards where Shirou was fighting the main bad guy. One of Shirou's blades had been broken, only for another to be formed in the blink of an eye to take its place without missing a beat. "So what's the story behind this? You little monsters have been holding out on me."

"Um... well... I don't think this is the right time to be discussing that." Rin said nervously, using body language to indicate the ninja who were starting to regroup.

"Suppose not, but you better tell me later." Anko said with a shrug, as snakes slowly lowered themselves down from inside of her over coat, rushing outwards across the ground. "Lets get this over with. I want my dango after all."

Rin was unsure whether to give a sigh of relief or to curse her luck... or Shirou's luck. On one hand, Anko's appearance was a massive boon for the fight. On the other hand, she was a witness that Rin and Shirou wouldn't want to kill, and Magus did not like witnesses. There was little doubt that she would report all the amazing things she saw to her superiors, leading to more people than she would like knowing about her and Shirou's skills. Shirou was like her ultimate trump card, so she didn't like the idea of him being revealed this early in the game.

Oh well, It wasn't as if Shirou's skills would stay a secret forever anyways. It was going to make things more difficult in the near future. Maybe if she was lucky they could bribe the snake charmer with sweets.

* * *

 **None of my explanations are canon, unless completely by mistake. I pull everything out of my ass. You feel like flaming me for that, fuck you too... I mean go head.**

* * *

 **Anko's nicknames for people**

 **Shirou - Shirou-chan**

 **Rin - Princess**

 **Hinata - Sunshine (derived from the fact that her name means sunflower)**

 **Naruto - Little Fox**

 **Collectively - My Little Monsters (yes she is possessive)**


	12. Chapter 12

Reid didn't know what to make of this.

In the past, he had fought Taijutsu experts who could be considered monsters in their own right. Men and women who had pushed themselves beyond the imaged limit, beating reflexes into their body until they moved more like animals. Their bodies responding to stimulus far faster than their brains ever could.

But this was nothing like that.

The boy in front of him wasn't reacting upon reflexes. No, he was actually using his weird energy to surprise his secondary nervous system, preventing any action that didn't come directly from his mind, using his Chakra to speed up the messages through his nerve endings until his reactions were as fast as reflexes.

While not as fast as the Taijutsu experts' moves, every action he made was controlled and precise. His blades moving in a fluid motion to the exact position he wanted them to. The kind of training needed to achieve something like this was insane. It was a skill associated with true masters of Lightning Chakra, and considered a forbidden technique, as a single mistake could result in death. It was the kind of thing used by individuals who were on the Kage level, an A-rank Taijutsu. How in the world would a child be able to produce such a similar result.

The Jounin moved his blade in on an weak point in the boy's stance, only to find a blade had moved in to meet him. As if the boy had read his mind and knew his next move. What happened next had already happened at least fifty times, but was still as unbelievable as the first time he had noticed it.

The Kumogakure was well known for its chakra swords, and by extention, its Chakra Flow technique. Lightning Chakra, when moved through a chakra sword, produced a very potent effect. It accelerated the vibrations in the blade, turning it into something like a chain saw on nitro. Anyone who used this technique could easily cut through solid rock like butter.

Reid had first become a Jounin from his skill in this field, and had only improved it since. His control over the Chakra Flow was so strong, that he could cut through even other chakra blades. Anything that got in the way of his sword was usually killed in an instant. It was a nearly unstoppable style.

Yet as Reid's blade drew close, the boy moved his own sword up, sliding the blade next to it and then, when the two sides of the blades were in line, he flicked out his wrist, causing him to parry the blade without ever having to catch the sword's deadly edge.

The war veteran had never even heard of such a technique. His mind was spinning from thinking about how dangerous it was. If he didn't repulse the attack at the exact right moment, he would lose an arm at the very least. Such a thing was suicidal.

Even when Reid did manage to force him to take the edge of the sword, the blades that the boy had conjured up from the ether didn't cut easily, and once damaged were simply discarded and replaced by an exact replica a moment later.

The counterattack came without any hesitation, a swift step forward inside the attack range of Reid's long sword with a thrust of the second blade. Fast as the attack was, Reid was faster, and jumped out of the way, using a bit of Water Chakra Flow to put out the fire that leaked from the boy's sword. This process repeated itself again and again, each trying to gain a blow on the other.

Reid looked down into the child's golden eyes. They looked like the eyes of a hawk, focused on its prey. Even his breathing was controlled, never once quickening or slowing throughout the fight. How was it that Konoha breed such monsters?

Reid went through the list of bloodlines in his head, trying to find a match, but nothing could explain this child's jutsu. No hand signs or blood was used that could be used for a summoning. Steel Chakra wasn't right, it could only give existing materials the properties of steel, not conjure it out of the air. Not to mention the fact that such steel was not at the quality of a true Chakra Blade, and the arrows had been wooden. The Jounin was constantly checking himself to test and see if he was under some kind of Genjutsu, because he just couldn't believe that this was real.

He would have to take the body back with him to Kumo for study. Taking him alive would have been preferable, but too risky.

During a small window when the distance between the two of them had extended to a few meters, the boy throw his weapons towards the Kumo ninja's throat. The Jounin easily deflected the incoming blades and was still in stance in time for the follow up attack as the child produced another pair of the swords and closed the gap.

Another exchange accrued before the boy was forced back again. However, the first two blades he had thrown were being pulled back, coming around from behind the senor ninja to strike him in his back.

Reid let go of his sword with his left hand before positioning his blade behind his back, deflecting the returning blades without turning around to see them.

If the boy was surprised, he didn't show it. With the sword behind the old man there was a window. He moved forward in a dash, preparing to strike a finishing blow.

Reid had to control his facial expressions, not to grin. His left hand was masked from the boy behind his body and was beginning to form one handed signs.

* * *

Shirou noticed the change in the man's energy. The pressure in the air, like that before a large storm. He realized he was being drawn into a trap.

Quickly throwing both blades from his hand, he summoned up a large claymore in front of him, putting both palms on its surface, he pushed off of it to break his momentum and jump backwards, rapidly increasing the distance between him and the man.

The ninja barely had time to move out of the way of the twin swords as they left a small trail of fire during their flight. The fire nearly burning the man's face as it went by, only stopped by the Water Chakra that coated the man's skin. But it didn't stop the coming attack.

"Storm Release: Light Show!" The ninja's left hand blurred from a bright light surrounding it as he throw it up towards Shirou.

"Trace on!" Shirou shouted, tracing the massive stone slab used by Berserker. Most would hardly describe the stone as a sword. It was nearly twice the size of a full grown man and weighed multiple tons. The monstrous strength needed to wield such a thing made it hard to call a weapon of any kind. But even if Shirou had nowhere near the strength to use it as a sword, it provided a good shield.

A blast of pale blue light shot out of the man's hand striking the stone sword and causing the surface to heat up till it glowed a soft orange color.

Shirou face remained unchanged. He repressed his secondary nerves system during fights in order to stop his body from reacting to pain or stress. It also stopped him from expressing shock in the heat of battle. He had not been expecting for someone to throw a scaled down pranablast at him. Granted there were differences, but the similarities were still surprising.

It was a combination Chakra Transformation, lightning and water. The raw power of lightning was usually forced on a single spot and the user had to expend extra energy to guide it, but when water came into play, acting as a method for both expanding the area of effect and guiding the attack, the effect became much more powerful. The one handed jutsu had also been unexpected. Shirou would need to be more careful.

But if the attack had gotten Shirou's attention, that was nothing compared to what came next. "Damn, thought I had him there." The man said, his hand going to his face where the fire from Shirou's blades had burned the bandages around his left eye. The wrappings fell alway to reveal a very familiar white eye.

"The Byakugan." Shirou said, looking at the pupil-less white eye. The skin around the eye socket looked loose and the eye itself seemed a bit lazy, but there was no mistaking what it was.

"Oh, was that surprise? I guess that means you can't read my mind." The man said with a smirk. "I'll admit, the old thing has been passed around a bit and doesn't work the way it used to, but it tells me everything I need to know. Like for example, I know about those extra chakra paths you and the girl got. Not normal. Did someone experiment on the two of you? Turn you into freaks?"

Shirou didn't respond, he just raised his hands and traced another pair of swords. It didn't matter at all to him what the man could see if he didn't understand. He would be dead before he could figure anything out or tell anyone.

"Oh, did I strike a nerve? Well, doesn't matter. You'll be dead soon enough. Sorry kid, nothing personal." The man said, lifting his own sword. "Just to show you that there are no hard feelings, let me let you in on a little secret. All high ranking ninja got a trump card. Something they only ever bring out when the situation really calls for it. Something that they make sure no one knows about. So if any outsider sees it, they got to die." The man's Chakra was changing rapidly as he formed more and more of the Storm type Chakra by mixing Lightning and Water. "This is mine. Storm Release!"

The jagged sparks surrounding the blade began to become smooth as the Lightning Chakra was replaced with Storm. The Chakra manifested around the blade, causing it to covered in a bright blue glow so dense as to make it seem as though the blade was truly made out of the strange light. The light extended past where the natural ending point of the sword would be, continuing on until it had doubled its already impressive length.

The man moved, fast as ever. The increase in the blade's size had not been done through any added mass that would slow down the strikes. His weapons length had been increased, but not with any of the usual drawbacks that would come with having a longer sword. He didn't even bother to correct his swings to make sure that his blade wouldn't connect with the ground as the laser like edge of the sword effortlessly slide in and out of the soil, leaving deep cuts and scorch marks from its passing.

Shirou was made to retreat, trying to keep up with the man's movement speed. If it weren't for the small balance issues involved in slashing that slowed him down, there would have been no way for Shirou to avoid being hit. But the increased range was not the true danger of this technique, nor was it the even sharper edge of the blade.

As Shirou rolled out of the way of a high slash, the blade seemed to bend in flight, twisting out of its straight form so that the tip went for Shirou's head from outside his field of vision. It was only his enhanced hearing that gave him the extra moment's warning to avoid the hit. The edge of the beam slide past his forehead, close enough to leave a cut above his left brow and sever a few stray strains of hair that went fluttering in the open air while a small line of blood dripped down into his eye.

The tip came around again, this time aiming for the boy's heart. Shirou had to block the attack with both swords crossed in front of him, using the force from the attack to help him jump backwards. He was thrown up over ten yards into the air, but landed on his feet as if it was nothing, continuing to prepare himself for more attacks, waiting for some kind of opening.

The ninja had returned to performing his one handed jutsu signs before slapping his open palm on the bottom of his hilt. "Storm Release: Hydra Beam!"

The second half of his sword exploded into nine separate lasers in the shape of thin serpents that homed in on Shirou's position. "Trace on!" Shirou shouted, recreating another one of Berserker's stone swords to act as a shield. It intercepted most of the blasts, but four shots still twisted themselves around the barrier.

He managed to block two, dodge a third, but the fourth got him in the side, burning a hole right above his hip. Shirou called on his Unlimited Blade Works to patch up the hole with a network of interlocking blades right underneath the skin. It was going to be painful later, once he stopped surprising the pain, but it would let him keep moving.

He had to keep moving. He saw the edge of the sword coming around to strike at the side of Berserker's stone sword. The blade was stopped by the dense stone slab before slowly managing to cut its way through. Shirou jumped backwards to put some more distance between himself at the ninja, projecting three swords to be fired at him as the stone moved out of the way.

The swords were mundane and didn't even last for the blink of an eye before being destroyed by the Storm Sword.

A wide sweep of the long blade came towards Shirou's injured side. He had positioned his blades to intercept the attack, catching the beam before it could slice him in half. But while he was resisting to blades edge, the traced Kanshou and Bakuya began to crack. Shirou dived to the ground right as the trace gave way, dodging blade yet again.

Now injured, disarmed, and in a bad stance, he couldn't get away as the Kumo ninja came in for a finishing blow, raising his sword in a two handed finish strike, an old favorite of the man's that he had kept as a habit from his early training. It would be a devastating hit. The range and stance was perfect. Shirou had his opening.

"I am the bone of my sword!"

* * *

Reid didn't know what had happened. It was only quick reflexes making him jump back as hard as he could at the last second that saved his life.

His left hand clutched at a bloody wound on his side while his right leg gave out from a sliced calf. Looking down into his right hand, he saw the stump of what had once been his sword, cut so short that what was left of the blade could be compared to a pocket knife.

As his brain struggled to figure out how his sure win had suddenly turned to a total lose, he saw it. "That... that white light." He said, his eyes widening. The boy stood where he had been before, in each hand was a blade, short straight tantous completely identical to one and other. Both surrounded by an unmistakable white aura. "It can't be, the Hakkō Chakura Tō. How are there two of them?" The war veteran could remember the blade from the last great war. There was no doubt in his mind that these were that same blade.

"The Hakkō Chakura Tō can cut through any chakra. Without your chakra severed, your blade couldn't stand against mine." The boy said holding the swords at the ready.

"To think that you could make even that weapon." Reid said. Then his face light up a little. "Weapon... that it. Weapons!" He shouted, starting to laugh like a mad man. His laughter drew the attention of everyone in the clearing. Rin and Anko had killed two more ninja and were pushing the last three back into a corner. "I get it now! I know what you are, what you do! The power to create any weapon of war! It was one of the powers of legend, used by the Sage of the Six Paths himself, the Path of Asura!"

The shaking laughter hurt his side, but he couldn't help it. It felt so ironic, for him to have been chasing after the Byakugan eyes only to come across such a monster. The Path of Asura, one of six powers possessed by a literal god. It was described as the creation of weapons. A child born with such a power was far more valuable than the Byakugan eyes.

As he got his fit of laughter under control, he could only sigh. "It's too late now."

The forest around them was crawling. The sound of insects grew until it was nearly deafening, the leafs in the trees shifted and shadows danced. Here and there a dog stepped out of the tree line, growling low. Two giants whose heads were in line with the tops of the trees moved into the clearing.

An old man wearing a red hat baring the symbol of fire seemed to appear in a gust of leafs, a hard frown on his face. "I would most certainly say it is." The man said angrily.

The shadows jumped towards the remaining Kumo ninja, each one of them being frozen in place as the dark patches seemed to wrap around them, forcing them to the ground. Reid could hear his own men screaming at the same time as a presence forced itself into his head, trying to suppress his will.

"I sure hope that all our talks of peace were merely for you to attempt this." The third Hokage said, glaring down at Reid. "I suppose we will find out about that soon, won't we."

"Shirou!" The older of the Hyūga girls said as the two sisters went to the boy's side. She looked worriedly at him as she reached for his injured side, only for him to push her hands away gently.

The boy gave her a kind smile, seeming so different from the cold expression he had during his fight. "I'm fine. It'll heal."

Reid gritted his teeth. He couldn't let it end like this. He had failed his village, but even if he could not bring back the Hyūga girls, he would still make sure that such monsters would never grow up to become enemies of Kumo.

Giving out a cry, he pushed out as much chakra as he could. "Lightning Release!" He shouted as blue sparks of electricity jumped all over his body, pushing back the shadows that had been binding him. He lifted his right arm and drove the remains of his blade into his leg, using the increased pain to push out the mental invaders. Then, in the last moment before he would be mobbed by Konoha ninja, he formed his hand signs, pushing all the chakra he had left into one final jutsu, a forbidden S-rank jutsu. "Storm Release: Grand Spiral Finally!"

The Storm jutsu erupted from his hands, so intense that it burned the skin from his flesh and crushed the bones of his fingers. The energy spiraled together as it moved straight for the children.

"Trace on! Rho Aias!" The boy shouted, putting up both his hands in front of him. A bright pink three petaled flower made of light appeared in the air, three barriers appearing in front of it, one for every petal.

The attack struck the barrier head on, accompanied by an explosion of wind that rocked the surrounding trees. It only lasted for a second, but it seemed like ages. The cracks slowly forming in the first of the barriers before it broke along with one of the flower's petals. But that was as far as it got.

The attack fizzled out into nothing, having been stopped in its tracks. The boy stood there panting for a second before falling down to the ground, covered in blood. The two girls gave out cries of distress.

That was the last thing Reid would ever see in the world. Hiashi's fist landed squarely in his back, pushing him down into the ground and leaving a crater over ten feet across.

* * *

 **I feel like I'm getting lazy here, but honestly this is gone on as long as it needs to.**

 **In Naruto canon, the Path of Asura involves having a mechanized body. Which if frankly just silly. I mean, did that kind of stuff even exist in the Great Sage's day? It was what, over a thousand years before the canon starts. Then again, they seemed to have some way of sending people to the moon back then. How the hell did they do that? Naruto canon is bullshit! Anyways, I feel no guilt in changing the Path of Asura from robot parts to simply creating instruments of war.**

 **For those of you who don't know Asuras are supposed to be near-deity like beings with three faces and six arms who are supposed to be constantly too serious and war like and are punished for having too much bad karma.**

 **Shirou, not at full power, can only use Rho Aias to a small degree of its total strength, thus the three petals instead of seven. So don't tell me I got the number wrong. And anyone who wants to talk about power levels can fuck off.**

* * *

 **There seems to have been a bit of confusion involving what I said about the nervous system. Some people believing that I was referring to the unconscious muscles like the heart. Since you only really are told about the two types of muscle in normal high school biology, it is my fault for assuming that you would understand what I meant. So I am going to take a moment to explain.**

 **When you touch something that is hot, two messages are sent through your nerves. One goes all the way to the brain and waits to be processed in order to receive instructions. The second goes to your spinal core before rebounding and returning to your nerves in order to tell your body that it is in danger and to let go of the hot object.**

 **This is referred to as your reflexes or your secondary nervous system. It is faster because it does not depend upon the brain, but because it is reacting upon limited data, it doesn't always give the greatest results.**

 **Normally, boxers and other fighters try to dampen their receptors through repeated hits in order to stop their body from telling them that they are in trouble. Giving them a greater degree of control in a fight.**

 **Shirou, rather than conditioning his body against it through training, instead uses his magecraft on the nerves that would carry the return signal in order to dampen it, stopping him from instinctively reacting to pain or pressure. Which is relatively safe compared to what he has done with his nerves in the past. And considering some in the Naruto universe seem to use lightning to achieve the same results, it is a lot safer than that.**

 **As the angry reviewer was a guest, I can't simply PM him about this stuff, so I'm just going to post it.**

 **Normally I would just ignore an angry review who is talking about how I don't know canon, because they are probably right about me not knowing/caring about canon, but they questioned my knowledge of science, and I just can't have that. I might be a second rate fan, but I am still a pretty good scientist. "FOR SCIENCE!"**

 **And for what feels like the hundredth time, Shirou and Rin aren't really Five. Yes they are physically five years old, but they are more like thirty and using skills that could let a full grown person lift up a truck and throw it with relative ease. They aren't just some kids, they are veterans of the Holy Grail War along with other tings.**


	13. Chapter 13

"We need to recall as many of our forces as possible and send out our scouts to the boarder." Danzou said clearly over the side talk and comments at the counsel table. Right after returning to the village, all man and women involved were told to keep their traps shut about everything they had seen and heard until the village decided what to do and the Hokage called a meeting of the Jounin Counsel, most of whom had been at the site and didn't need a briefer on the situation. However, what the situation exactly was wasn't exactly agreed upon.

"Taking up such a clearly aggressive action will not help us endear ourselves to the other villages. We need to take our time to confirm Kumogakure's stance before we throw away this chance of peace." The Hokage said with a shake of the head.

"I would think that their stance is clear enough. They came here under false pretenses and spat in our eyes as we offered them peace." Uchiha Fugaku said, his arms crossed. "It is no secret that Kumo never honored the agreement to decrease the size of the military after the Third Shinobi War. As much as I wish for peace, they cannot be trusted. We need to take action to defend ourselves."

"We can't be sure that this man's actions represent what Kumo really wanted." The Hokage's son, Asuma said, trying to back up his father's position. "He could have been acting independently."

"Does the fact that he was their representative in the peace talks not say that he represents them!" Stone Lee said, more loudly than most of the others. "We cannot be idol! Quick action is needed if we are going to achieve victory!"

Aburame Shibi shook his head. "Large actions draw attention. But small ones might go unnoticed. We should send small groups to gather intelligence."

"So we are suppose to just sit here with stupid grins on our faces when we should be preparing for war?" Inuzuka Gaku said, baring his teeth, his dog like features becoming more apparent with his anger.

"If there is a war, then we've already lost." Everyone went quiet at Nara Shikaku's depressing words. "Things have changed since the last war. While Kumo's strength had been growing since then, ours has taken a serious hit. Maybe if it was five years ago we might stand a chance, but as things are, its hopeless. The Fourth is dead, our all powerful jinchūriki has been replaced by an untrained four year old, Some moron decided to ostracize the White Fang so hard he killed himself and our Legendary Sannin have all either turned traitor, left us to sulk, or gone off to who knows where chasing skirts. The village has never been weaker. Meanwhile, Kumo has been rounding up new bloodlines and natural resources left and right and now has two jinchūriki. The only reason Kumo went to the peace conference is because they don't fear us at all and there was more money to be made through cooperation than this cold war we've been in since the end of the hot one." He gave a long sigh. "How troublesome."

Akimichi Chōza gave a grunt of agreement through a mouthful of potato chips. He was grateful to be invited into these meetings, but they might as well not have bothered. He knew his position was in the heavy lifting department and not the brain work, so he usually just stayed quiet. However, he was not a man that was too proud to admit when his old Nara partner was right and they should just act out the cowards.

"War isn't an option, which is why we need to be considering the more immediate matter at hand. What are we going to do about the witnesses?" Shikaku continued. "If we let Kumo question them, then there is no doubt they will find out everything. What do you think they would do when they found out about little the Hyūga girl and Ena boy?" Hyūga Hiashi, who had been silent since the beginning stiffened at the mention of his daughter and her friend. "They get confirmation that not only do we have two five year olds of such unbelievable talent, but also that one might possess the power of the Path of Asura."

Some eyes shifted at the mention of Kuroshi's supposed power. They had all seen it, the two copies of the sword that could not be there. The impossibly powerful barrier he had called up in the blink of an eye without the use of hand signs. The thousands of swords dissolving into shiny blue fragments as the boy lost consciousness. The way his body healed at such a rapid rate as to make his injures nearly gone before he was even back to the village, not even leaving a scar on his body to show that a golfball sized hole had once been in his side. They had always known that he was strange, but no one had ever had a clue that the boy was capable of such things, no one save the Hyūga girl, Hikaru.

At first, Hikaru had tried to stop them from approaching the boy's body, going so far as to use non-lethal jutsu to push back one of the medics that wanted to tend to him. They had all believed that she was in shock and too confused to realize that they won't going to harm him, but after a member of the Nara Clan restrained her so that they could get to the injured child, they began to think that she was trying to stop them from seeing the child's healing abilities.

One of the Inuzuka clan who had been the one to find the child after his entire family was crushed during the Nine Tails disaster confessed that the boy hadn't had a scratch on him that day, even though an entire building had caved in on him and his family. He had assumed that the boy had been lucky, but now this made them second guess that. Every small strange thing that the boy had done over the years suddenly had new meaning in light of this revelation.

"We have not conformed whether or not Kuroshi-kun truly has any connection to that power. It is best if we do not let our imaginations get ahead of ourselves." The Hokage said with a frown.

"Doesn't matter what is true or not. It only matters what people think or worry might be true. What would you do if you were them, Danzou, if you heard that a short term allie had something like the Path of the Asura, but that it was nothing more than a child at the moment?" Shikaku said, looking to the War Hawk.

Eyes went to Danzou, some hoping that he just won't say it, but he did. "I would make sure that he never grow up to become a possible threat to the village. If it was me, I would arrange to make sure that both him and the Hyūga girl died." Danzou said, as if it was the most natural thing in world, to talk about murdering children. A few of them still had the human decency needed to feel disgusted, even as they saw the reasons behind it. Hiashi almost looked livid at the mere idea. Few could recall ever seeing him as angry as he had been that day when the Kumo ninja had attempted to kill his daughters and their friend.

"If we let the witnesses live, and they tell, then those two kids will make it onto every underground Bingo Book within the month. The girl will probably be at least a B-rank target, the boy would definitely make S-rank." Shikaku said in that way he had. He was giving the truth, no matter how ugly or disgraceful it was.

"No one would put such a high bounty on children." Kakashi commented with a wide eye. No one responded to him, they all had paled a bit at the through.

"We have to kill them. They would die sooner or later anyways. Whether or not they were ordered by the top to preform this mission, they failed. They would die for either performing an act of treason or failing a mission of this magnitude." Shibi said, getting many voices of agreement from the other Jounin.

"Its not that simple." Shikaku said with a shake of the head. "How troublesome." The Nara's team membered looked even more uncomfortable. Two uses of 'How troublesome' in one conversation. This never was a good sign.

"Mind explaining. Not all of us are geniuses like you, Shikaku." Asuma said with a worried smile.

"We kill the witnesses, then Kumo will make martyrs out of them and use it to convince their people to do an all out invasion. They will deny that the attack on the kids ever happened and it will be a hit to our allies who would then need to deal with the political bullshit involved in helping us when we look like the instigators." Shikaku said bitterly.

"But what about the one who wasn't at that fight! We can use him as a witness! He will be our proof that the kidnapping happened, but is unaware of anything to do with the Path!" Stone said loudly.

"Then we are depending on a witness we have no idea whether or not they will even give true testimony, and whose voice probably doesn't count for much." Shikaku said, shooting down the suggestion. "He isn't only a Gennin, he was also not born in Kumo. His accent isn't right. I'd guess he was a refugee who simply moved into the village and became a ninja to make a living."

Yamanaka Inoichi sighed pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to the right for it to be passed around. "As usual, he's right. Nura, no clan name. He became an offical ninja at the age of ten because of his talents but never managed to get promoted beyond Gennin. He would get half way through his Chunin exams before failing because he wouldn't fight girls. Goes against his principles to hurt a girl of personal gain. His rank is extremely low, he doesn't seem to have any close friends since his teams always left him behind when they became Chunin, and he has no family to speak of. His word won't mean jack shit." The blond intelligence officer admitted.

"So we have to choose between going into a war that we cannot win and placing two innocent children in harms way." Yūhi Kurenai said. The woman did not look happy. She was still young and a new Jounin, not used to having to make such calls.

"There is another way." Shikaku said, though he didn't seem to be jumping for joy to share it. "In shōgi, if one wants to open up a path for there more valuable pieces to take the board, then they have to use another piece as bait."

"A scapegoat." Danzou said, catching the man's meaning.

"Kumo is big into the blood for blood. If we offer them a head on the chopping block, one that they would want to see, they would overlook the deaths of so many of there ninja." Shikaku conformed.

"Can't say that option is any more appealing than the others." Kurenai said with a sigh.

"I'll do it." Everyone looked shocked at Hiashi. The head of the Hyūga sat there with eyes closed, a look of acceptance on his face. "That is what you meant, wasn't it? A head valuable enough to make them over look their dead ninja to get it. What head could be more valuable to them than the head of the Hyūga clan, with its famous eyes?"

"Hiashi, you can't be serious." Gaku said with his mouth dropped open.

"This is my clan's shame, my daughter's safety, and my debt to the boy who rescued my children. If my life is the price then consider it cheep." Hiashi said calmly. There were words of protest all around, about how unreasonable it was for him to have to sacrifice his life when they had done nothing wrong. But eventually they were all silenced.

"Enough!" The Hokage demanded, quieting the group. "We will make a final decision on the matter in two days. That should be enough time to think things through and get all the information we can out of the witnesses. Remember that not a word of this is suppose to spread. If the witnesses are in the end going to be killed, it is best if we can claim that they were never taken alive." The Jounin nodded in agreement. "Then everyone dismissed, except for you Hiashi-san, I need to have a word."

The ninja all filed out until only the village leader and the head of the Hyūgas remained. As the old man leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, Hiashi had a feeling he was in for a long talk.

"Regardless about what happens, we need to look towards the future and hope it is a future where our children can be happy." The old man mumbled before opening his eyes again. "We will need to plan for their future."

* * *

Rin new that Shirou was awake before his eyes ever opened. She could see as his magic circuits opened up to preform a full body Structural Analysis and take stock of his condition. Then, he took a much sharper inhale, and tilted his head to the side, cocking an ear.

"Seven guards, two out side the door, two down the hall, three in the rafters." He mumbled before opening his eyes. He was lying on a bed in a hospital room, Rin sitting in the chair next to his bed. They must not have been able to stop her.

"Not taking chances, are they?" Rin said with a nod.

"You alright? How's Hinata?" Shirou asked her.

"Hinata-chan's fine, she's in the other room, they gave her some medicine to calm down and put her to sleep. She's shaken, probably will need some therapy, but she'll be fine." Rin said. "As for me, nothing worse than a few bruises that were taken care of it a second. You were the only one who really got hurt bad."

"Ah, thats good." Shirou said, he immediately regreted saying so as Rin hit him hard on the head.

"No that is not good, Shirou!" She said angrily, putting her hands on her hips and standing on her chair so that she could appropriately lean over him. "You shouldn't be so stupid Shirou! If you had just taken Hinata like I had told you to then you wouldn't have gotten so hurt! They wanted me alive, but they could have killed you Shirou, and I mean killed you so that you actually do die! You aren't always going to be able to dodge the bullet like you did today!"

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Shirou repeated again and again, trying to shelter himself from the angry girl. He didn't really understand what he was apologizing for, but experience had taught him to apologize.

Rin continued to glare at him for a few seconds for good measure before giving a short sigh. "What a mess. I wish you had just killed that bastard the moment he opened his stupid mouth. Now people think that you are some kind of incarnation of a godly power... god of they only knew." She began to rub at her temples. "So many root-be-damned witnesses. I don't have a clue how I am going to get you out of this one, Shirou."

"How bad is it exactly?" Shirou asked hoping to get a better idea of his situation.

"We are in a world full of mystic powered mercenary assassins who are all constantly at war with one and other and you just cemented yourself as a first class power house. Ninja as a superstitious lot, and a name like 'the Path of the Asura' is bound to attract attention the same way your Reality Marble would in a room full of magus." Rin said, shaking her head. Shirou did not like the sound of that. Most magus would have tried to strap him down to a dissection table if they knew about the secret to his odd magecraft. "It might be even worse than that. The Six Paths hold the same meaning to most ninja as the Five True Magics hold to magus. The mention of it could cause some kind of frenzy."

"Should I be running for my life?" Shirou asked honestly.

"So long as the village decides to grant us protection and open war doesn't break out, we should be safe, but the second we set foot outside of the village all bets are off. The real issue we have to worry about is how the village itself is going to react to you. I'm protected by the Hyūga family name and the treaties that exist between my family and the village. You on the other hand don't have such a luxury. Most likely they will try to use you in some fashion or other, either as a weapon or as breeding material." Rin said off-handedly. Shirou couldn't help but flush at how casually she said that second one.

"The Unlimited Blade Works isn't a genetic trait." Shirou said quickly trying to fight down his flush.

"I know that, but they don't. And considering we don't want them trying to carve you open, it is better if they don't find out." Rin said giving Shirou a disapproving look, as if she thought he wasn't taking things seriously enough. She jumped down from her position on top of the chair and started shaking her head again. "I'll try to think of something. You just say here and rest, and try to keep your head down as long as you can. If people ask you about your abilities, you don't know anything for sure and you don't explain any of how they work."

"But I'm already heal..." Shirou's mouth shut tight as Rin activated her eyes of binding. The magic itself was not strong enough to effect him in the slightest anymore, but the look still had power.

"You will stay here and rest!" She ordered him, Shirou having to nod in silence, not wanting to provoke her. "Good." She said, before starting to make her way to the door, but she stopped before going through. "Oh, and Shirou," She said looking back at him with a slightly shy smile. "Thanks for coming to my rescue."

With that, she left, leaving Shirou in his hospital bed, wondering just what she was going to do. He concluded that he probably didn't want to know.


	14. Chapter 14

"So, Hikaru-chan too huh." Hiruzen mumbled as he reached around his desk, trying to find his pipe. He needed something to take the edge off. He was getting told old for this kind of shit. He'd need to find another successor soon. Too bad all the good replacements were all either running away from the job for dear life, or suspected to be involved in some nasty business. He would have named the Uchiha head as the next Hokage, but some people on the village counsel suspected the clan of being involved in the Nine Tails incident, regardless the evidence against it.

"Hokage-sama. Forgive me for withholding this information for so..." Hiashi started to apologize but was waved off.

"You will well within your rights not to tell me. I'm glad you feel like you can trust me know, though I wish it wasn't for the reason I suspect." Hiruzen said as he finally found his pipe and smoking leafs, using a bit of fire chakra to light it. "But if these extra chakra channels and strange chakra have something to do with the Great Sage of the Six Paths, it would explain quite a bit about that daughter of yours. Mastering all of the standard Elemental Transformations is no small feat, and the unusual jutsu she employees... Thinking back, it even seems to make sense for her, but I never imaged Kuroshi-kun was keeping such secrets."

"They both possess skill and knowledge that seems impossible." Hiashi agreed, but he still had his reservations about the idea that his daughter had something to do with that legendary power. "Do you honestly believe that it has to do with the Six Paths?"

Hiruzen scratched at his beard, lowering his chin to his chest. He was quiet for so long that Hiashi almost started to wonder if the man had fallen asleep. "I have no idea." The Third Hokage admitted weakly. "I'm afraid that I am no sage or great knower of history. This subject is so old that not even the oldest clans could boast half its age. We'll need to ask someone who is perhaps more knowledgeable than ourselves."

Hiashi watched as the man took up a letter opener, sharpened it with his chakra and pricked his finger. With a few hand signs, he placed that hand on the floor. "Summoning Jutsu!"

A cloud of smoke filled the small room before clearing up to reveal a large being who seemed to be some kind of cross between a monkey and a man, standing a good two heads taller than either of the ninja. Enma, the current king of the monkeys' clan was clothed in a casual kimono in a tropical island theme rather than his usual thick tiger hide clothes, though his Konoha headband was still in place on his head. His long mane of white hair was wet, as if he had recently been bathing. He seemed a little surprised to having been summoned. But he gave a welcoming smile all the same at the sight of his old friend.

"Hiruzen-sama, it's been a while. Why have you summoned me to your office? Please tell me you aren't going to make me help you with paper work." The Monkey King joked with a cocky grin as he leaned up against the wall of the office.

"As if you would ever help me with that." Hiruzen said with a shake of the head. "No, I've called you to help with some questions we have involving the Great Sage of the Six Paths."

Enma looked a little surprised by the request. "Hiruzen-sama, I know I am old by your human standards, but I'm not that old. That's something like twelve generations back. My clan didn't even exist until the very end of those golden days."

"That may be, but your people have a better record of it then mine do. We need a way to compare what we see with what the God of Ninjas possessed." Hiruzen explained as he poured a cup to tea and pushed it over to the old monkey.

"What you see? What do you mean by that?" Enma asked, taking up the cup and starting to drink.

"Two children have emerged who we believe to be connected to that power. One has demonstrated use of what seems to be the Path of Asura." Hiruzen said. He took some pleasure as the Monkey King did a spit take.

"You... you're yanking my tail!" Enma said accusingly between coughs. Then seeing that his old friend was serious, he changed his tone, his joking manner being replaced with a calmness. "Tell me everything."

They spent the next hour explain just who these children were and every detail they could recount from the days events and the strange actions observed in the pervious years to the Monkey King. But the time they were finished, his fur had nearly drip dried.

"Hm... Interesting. Very interesting. There are a few differences between that boy's technique and the stories I know of the Paths, but those could simply be because his version is incomplete." Enma said, nodding deeply.

"Incomplete?" Hiashi repeated, hoping to get a further explanation.

"The Six Paths were the pinnacle of what one could achieve with the Yin-Yang release. Something far beyond what anyone else has ever done. The six of them combined formed the base for what is known as the "Creation of All things". Deva, Asura, Human, Animal, Preta, and Naraka, each one representing a different piece of the whole; Energy, Purpose, Spirit, Form, Substance, and History." Enma explained. "The Path of Asura by itself dealt with the creation of tools that's shape and purpose were defined by the maker. The difference I can see between what you have witnessed and what once was is that the swords the child had created disappeared. The boy lacks the power to fully bring them into the world and so the tools he creates remain connected to him rather than nature itself. In other words, the boy is not a Sage."

Both Hiruzen and Hiashi couldn't tell what to think. The idea that everything the child had done was an unfinished product had never crossed their minds. Now they couldn't help but wonder what the True Path of Asura looked like.

"As for the girl, I can't say anything for sure. Some of the things you described could mean something, but then again they could mean something else." The Monkey Kind said, scratching his chin in thought. "She might just not have realized her true nature yet. But the way she infuses jutsu into stones could be a form of the path of the Human, manipulating the nature of spirit. Then again, it could just be a new method of Fuinjutsu. The jutsu she uses to strike people with a distant force of energy could be the Path of the Deva, or it could be something completely different." Enma shook his head. "Regardless, what are you going to do about the children? Properly trained in the Sage's arts, they could be the most powerful individuals in the history of the Village, easily surpassing even you. But that in itself is a barrel of bananas. You won't be sure if they are going to smell until after you already opened it up. Some things are better just left undiscovered."

Hiashi frowned at what the summoned monkey was implying, that his daughter could be dangerous. Deep down, he knew that she wasn't, regardless how many people called her 'the White Eyed Witch' when they thought he was out of ear shot. He remembered all those days finding her in the mornings, cuddled up with her little sister. The way she laughed and played pranks on the clan members who annoyed her. How she dismissed the idea of going to war for something as 'stupid' as honor. Her insistence on having a childhood rather than becoming an official ninja early. Her endless curiosity as she read every book and scroll she could get her hands on. She was his baby girl, no matter how powerful she became.

For his part, the Third Hokage seemed unmoved by the Monkey King's suggestion of just not training the children. "That won't be a choose that needs to be made today. They are too young to undergo Sage training, regardless of their outward maturity and skills."

The Monkey King didn't seem happy about the response. "Hiruzen-sama, you shouldn't keep putting off such important decisions."

"Perhaps your right, but I always hope that unpleasant things will not transpire. I suppose I should put my foot down." Hiruzen said, his eyes going to Hiashi. The clan head suddenly realized the Hokage was referring to him. "Do you honestly believe that sacrificing yourself will fix anything?"

Hiashi closed his eyes and turned his head away, the same way he always head when he didn't want to meet the Hokage's gaze. "This is a Clan matter. Your intervention is not required."

"Bullshit!" The old man snapped. "The Will of Fire. Everyone in Konoha, regardless of Clan, is family. It is the principle the village was built upon. So don't pull that Clan matter's nonsense." Hiashi didn't open his eyes. "Hiashi, we will find another way to protect the children. One that doesn't involve sacrifice. So drop this dying for honor foolishness and try to come up with a better..." There was a loud knocking on the door, causing Hiruzen to curse equally loudly. "What is it!?"

"Hokage-sama, yours and Hyūga-sama's attendance has been requested at the Hyūga Compound for a clan gathering." The ninja said, going down onto one knee in front of the Hokage, hardly seeming to notice the seven foot tall monkey in bathrobes in the room.

"Tell... that foolish elder that I'm busy." The Hokage said, trying to think what the elder's name was, but drawing a blank. Hiashi also looked unhappy, his father had been getting too bold as of late for his liking.

"Hokage-sama, it isn't the one who called for the gathering. It was the White Eyed Wi... I mean, Hikaru-sama who has called everyone." The ninja said, barely catching himself from calling the girl by her nickname in front of her father. Scared that he might react unkindly to it. He might has well not have worried. Both men were too shocked from the information to remember the slip.

"Oh, that's a pretty gutsy move." Enma chuckled. "Think I'll be joining you. I'd like to see this girl for myself."

* * *

Rin was pleased by the turn up. Nearly the entire clan was there, regardless of age or personal opinions. Some were angry that she had the gall to call on them, some seemed excited, other merely confused. But all showed up out of curiosity, to see what their young heiress would say, and about the events that had transpired during her kidnapping.

None even contested her place in the position of honor near the entrance of the room, usually reserved for the Head of Clan. She sat there in a meditative stance, preparing herself to unleash the storm that would shake the entire clan, waiting for the final guests to arrive.

Her father entered along with the Hokage and what appeared to be a giant monkey wearing bathrobes. "Thank you for honoring my invitation, Hokage-sama, Otou-sama." Rin said in the manner of a highborn lady. "I see you have brought a guest with you, I am Hyūga Hikaru, it is a joy to make your acquaintance."

The monkey grinned and gave a half bow. "I am Enma, and it is an honor to be welcomed."

"You are most welcome. It is an unexpected pleasure to have the Monkey King Enma, descendant of the Great Sage Equal of Heaven, within our humble dwelling. You are as handsome as the stories say." Rin said, continuing to smile.

The Monkey King gave a loud laugh. "Well, someone has done their homework!"

"It is said that information is more valuable than gold. If that is the case, then I'm afraid that I am quiet greedy." Rin said, giving a small and measured giggle. "As much as I wish to ask you a hundred questions, I'm afraid I must be starting this gathering. Perhaps we will have the chance to converse later and you can share with me some of your vast wealth of knowledge."

"You didn't tell me she was such a charmer." Enma whispered to the Third Hokage as they took up some open seats.

"She is when she wants to be." Hiruzen replied with a knowing smile at the vain Monkey King. He could tell that Enma had already been sold on the girl from that one meeting. He was a sucker for praise.

"As much as I wish to wait for everyone to show up, I'm afraid that it will soon be getting too late, so everyone who isn't here will simply have to hear it from word of mouth." Rin said as she stood up to address the room. They had all gone oddly quiet for a group who were listening to a five year old girl. "First, a small recap on the events that have recently transpired. Earlier today, Hakaku showed himself a traitor to the clan by arranging to hand over Hinata and myself to Kumo ninja."

Rin let the small amount of noise fill the room for a moment, playing up the reaction as an experienced showman would. That was what this was, a show to make a statement and push forward her own agenda.

"I am still here thanks to a brave group of men and women who quickly came to our aid. To those of you who were apart of the rescue party, I want to give you my thanks." Rin said giving a bow of the head. "It makes me glad that you would try to help me, but it also makes me sad. I'm sad because I cannot stay here anymore." This got a much larger reaction from the gathered clan members. "While I have no doubt that a vast majority of you are loyal and good people, I can't risk Hinata-chan's safety if the possibility that another who shares Hakaku's warped opinions still resides here. So I am going to move long with my little imōto into the Ena residence until she can feel safe again."

"Hikaru, you cannot act so brashly. Regardless your personal feelings, your place is here. We will not permit you to leave." The Elder said sternly.

Rin looked annoyed with the old man. "I do not recall asking for your permission. I merely told you what it was that I was going to do. There is no way that Hinata-chan can feel safe here anymore. Not when your own personal man proved a traitor to the clan." Some of the people in the audience whispered about what the girl had just implied. The Elder looked like he was going to object to it, but Rin never gave him the chance. "I have grown tired of your attempts to control this clan. Even more than the Cursed Seals, you have tried to rule it through brainwashing. You spin stories about fate, convincing everyone that they cannot achieve beyond the limits you tell them exist, placing up barriers in their mind. But in truth, you don't even know what fate even is."

Rin closed her eyes and activated several dozen magic circuits.

 **Ye first, O silver, O iron.**

 **O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract.**

 **Hear me in the name of our great teacher.**

 **Let the descending winds be as a wall.**

 **Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.**

 **Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut.**

 **Five perfections for each repetition.**

 **And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead.**

 **Set.**

 **Heed my words.**

 **My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.**

 **If you heed the Grail's call, and obey my will and reason, then answer my summoning.**

 **I make my oath here.**

 **That I shall be all the good in the world,**

 **That I shall defeat all evil in the world.**

 **Seventh heaven clad, and great words of power,**

 **Come past thy restraining rings, and be the hands that protect the balance-!**

Even without the summoning circle, or the grail to respond to the call, those words still held power. The surrounding ninja could all feel it, the members of the Hyūga clan could even see it, the energies twisting in the air, searching for the outlet before slowly dissipating.

"A prophecy?" Enma said with a bit of wonder into the silence that followed Rin's chant. It was not unheard of for those with natural talent in Sage arts to receive divinations. The Hyūga clan was struck dumb at being confronted with what they believed was an first hand message from fate itself.

"I will allow it." Hiashi said after he had regained his wits. The other clan members turned to look at him in surprise. "As Head of Clan, I will place my faith in Ena Kuroshi. Today, he proved himself by being the first to reach my daughters. If it wasn't for his bravery and strength, they would most certainly be lost. He has earned my trust."

Those who won't fully aware of the day's events were confused, but Rin didn't give them time to talk among themselves.

"Thank you, Otou-san." She said, giving her father a true, grateful smile. "I know that Shirou is worthy of your trust. I might not know all of what the prophecy's means, but I know that it is Shirou's sword that is to shape my destiny. Just like how he searched for me before he even knew my name, I knew that it was him the moment I met him. He is the one who holds the Path of Asura, one of the six powers of the God of Ninjas. And someday, he will become the greatest hero this village has ever known, 'the hands that protect the balance'."

The Hokage nearly groaned as noise exploded in the room at the decoration that little Kuroshi held the power of a god. "So much for an S-rank secret." He mumbled to the Monkey King. He couldn't tell how much of this was real and how much was made up to manipulate the listeners.

"Forget what I said earlier, this girl is great." Enma mumbled back with a huge smile. "Maybe I should get her to sign my summoning scroll. What a show."

Even with everyone wanting to say something about such a revelation, they all quieted when Rin made to speak again, wanting to hear exactly what she was going to say. "His secret is now out. In order to rescue me, he revealed himself and used his power against the foreign ninja. So now, in order to protect him the way he protected me, I will do something I should have done a long time ago. As the Heiress to the Hyūga name, I am going to bring Shirou into our Clan." Rin said.

Her pause allowed for whispers to set in again. "Hikaru-sama. The clan laws don't allow us to just accept outsiders into the clan." One of the men said, his eyes wide with wonder.

Rin shifted a bit, unhappy that someone had pointed out the fact that the rules were stopping her. "Yes, I know." She said, Hiashi's eyes widened as a small blush could be seen on her face. "That is way he will be brought into the clan through marriage... as my husband."

The noise in the room reached an all time high so that no one could hear or understand what anyone was saying. The only things that could be heard clearly was Rin's mother's squeals of delight and the clapping of the Monkey King.

Hiashi's jaw had slid open with shock. Sure he had thought from time to time about finding a good match for his daughters, but he had been convinced that it was still a good time away. Usually people didn't get married until they were at least fifteen.

He felt a pat on his shoulder and turned his head around to see his twin brother's smiling face. "I suppose congratulations are in order!" He said over all the noise. Hiashi could only nod dumbly.

* * *

 **No, none of what I'm saying is canon(unless completely by accident), so don't bother asking. With Hiashi planning on sacrificing himself, he is position his children away from the clan politics that might endanger them.**


	15. Chapter 15

Yamanaka Inoichi was not having the best of days. It started with finding out that Hikaru had taken it upon herself to not only announce Kuroshi's existence to her clan, but also to bring him into their main family through an engagement. Now all of the political red tape that protected members of official ninja clans now extended to that young boy.

He had rushed to the hospital in an attempt to question him before he could be made aware of what rights he had, only to find out that all of the guards had been knocked out and that the boy was missing.

He had been signed out of the hospital by the crazy young woman, Anko, for who knows what reason. Inoichi really wished they had just left that girl in field work. As much as her craziness caused trouble in the outside world, at least they didn't have to clean up the messes she would make when she was running loose in the village.

Eventually he had tracked them all the way back to the Ena residence, which thinking back should have been the first place he should have looked. He had tried to run up through the open front gate when he smacked face first into a powerful barrier that had been placed around the house, causing him to fall on his ass clutching at his face.

"What the hell?" He swore as he got back to his feet, reaching out with one hand and feeling the very physical barrier that had been placed around the house. He didn't remember this being there before. The White Eyed Witch must have upped security after deciding that she was going to move in. It was an incredibly powerful barrier. He tested it with his chakra and found that it was on par with what the Uzumakis used during the war. If someone was to force their way through, they weren't doing it quietly.

Looking around, he saw a flat wooden board hung next to the door with the words 'knock here' carved into it along with a Fuinjutsu formula. Inoichi did as it said and waited.

A few moments later, the door to the house opened and Kuroshi was standing there in a white apron with a bit of cooking flour stuck to his hands.

'Here stands the boy who wields the power of a god.' Inoichi couldn't help but think in wonder. It wasn't exactly the scene people imagined in their mind when they thought of godly power. He had a completely relaxed stance and a gentle and homely look about him. You would never have guessed that he had killed without any sign of hesitation just the day before, or that he had been injured to nearly the point of death.

Kuroshi gave Inoichi a smile as he saw him. "Yamanaka-san, what a surprise. Are you here for Anko again? Would you like to say for lunch? It should be done in around ten minutes." The boy said as he started to whip off his hands on his apron and come down the front steps to the front gate. "No need to stand outside, come on in."

Inoichi hesitated before stepping forward, finding that the force that had stopped him before had seemed to vanish, knowing that it was still there, just allowing him to pass. That White Eyed Witch really was something. Like most people who used the nickname, it was more out of wonder than anything else. He knew that some day the whole world would probably know that name.

"Well, I do need to speak to Anko-san, but I am also here to talk to you." Inoichi said, keeping his tone friendly. He was more likely to get whatever information he wanted acting friendly. He had talked to the boy before about his smithing skills, finding out a great deal about smithing, though never really found out anything about the origin of such skills. Kuroshi had always just seemed surprised that he was supposed to have learned it from someone. Made a bit more sense when he was the wielder of the Path of Asura.

Inoichi went into detective mode as he shook the boy's hand, taking in every dealt about him. Two things immediately jumped out at him after a second look. It made him think of the report about 'Hikaru's Prophecy', or one line in particular. 'My will creates your body.'

His eyes had changed. Where before they had been a golden honey brown, they were now a sharp steel like silver color. There were also a few small strains of white in his hair, hardly visible in the massive of pink, but perhaps a sign of changes to come.

"Well, I'd be glad to help you if I can, but whatever business it is, I hope it can wait until after lunch." Kuroshi said with a smile before leading Inoichi inside.

The ninja watched the boy's steps carefully, expecting to see some kind of hint. There was always a sort of tell with people who practice martial arts to the point of masterly, a bit of their form that had become so second nature that it became part of how they moved without even thinking about it. He wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised that he couldn't seem to find one. Except for the fact that the boy's hands always seemed to be grabbing out for something that wasn't there.

He came inside and went with the boy into the dinning room where he found Anko playing cards with Hinata and Naruto. She looked up to see him as he walked in and gave him a grin. "Hey there Bossman, what brings you around!?" She asked, as if she didn't already know.

Hinata shrank back into her seat at the sight of him. The girl had always been shy, but now there was some fear in her body language that extended beyond simple shyness. The kidnapping had shaken her. Not to mention the battle that she had been smack down in the middle off.

Naruto on the other hand seemed unchanged from usual. Though the boy hadn't been kidnapped, he had still seen a pretty bloody scene. However it seemed to have effected him very little. He just grinned at the sight of Inoichi. "Anko-nee is in trouble again!" He said in a sing song voice.

"Quiet Little Fox. I'm not in trouble. I'm sure he's just here to tell me what a great job I've been doing." Anko said with a proud smile.

"Actually Anko, you've been moved out of Intelligence. Consider yourself fired." Inoichi said in a flat voice.

The response he got as as unpredicted as you would predict the girl's response to be. "Yes! Finally! No more desk work for this girl!" She cried, throwing up her cards into the air and doing a little dance on the spot. The actions might have been stupid, but it seemed to have a calming effect on little Hinata as the girl focused more on the light hearted display than on her own worries.

"Anko-nee, that isn't a good thing. You should try to take more pride in our work." Kuroshi said disapprovingly. It was still strange even after all this time to see the five year old boy scolding the nearly full grown seventeen year old woman.

"Nope. This girl wasn't built for a desk job. Too boring." The girl said with a smile.

"Well then, hopefully you will have more fun in our next assignment. Hokage-sama wishes for you to start as a teacher at the Academy." Inoichi said, keeping his voice flat.

A look of horror went over the girl's face. "What!? No! Why would Oji-sama do such a thing!?" Anko cried out dropping down to her knees.

"He saw how well you handle children and decided it would be a good fit for you." Inoichi informed her, though the real reason was to keep a better eye on Kuroshi and Hikaru as they entered the Academy.

"But the paperwork, and the grading... they might even make me be part of a committee!" Anko whined hopelessly.

"So Anko-nee is going to be our teacher then, is that correct?" Hikaru asked as she entered the kitchen. "We will be in your care, Sensei." She said, giving an all too sweet smile that led only to Anko's continued pouting.

Somewhere down the line, Kuroshi had disappeared into the kitchen to finish making the meal. So Inoichi sat down at the table and started to observe Hikaru instead as the older sibling went on to tease Anko and Naruto for her own and maybe Hinata's amusement.

The White Eyed Witch's voice didn't show any sign of care, but she looked a little worn down. Her movement slightly more sluggish. It was harder to tell with her clan's featureless eyes, but she did show signs of exhaustion. She either hadn't slept, or she had drained herself a good deal in the previous day's fight. Children usually showed exhaustion faster than adults. Developing bodies need their sleep.

In her hand was a book of complex Fuinjutsu, one that Inoichi was fairly sure was supposed to be restricted to Jounin experts. Anko must have lent it to her.

Kuroshi came and went, bringing out plates of hot food that smelt simply amazing. It was a wonder that the Akimichi clan hadn't tried to kidnap the boy in the past.

As much as Inoichi would like to get his work done quickly, he decided that pressing the boy into raising his defenses might not be the best plan. That was Child Psychology 101. Put a child in a bad spot and they will tell you whatever you want to hear, though most of it will be lies. They will be more truthful if they believe they are sharing rather than being forced. Which was why he had a pretense beyond simple questioning with him. If he needed to wait until after they ate lunch, then so be it.

Dammit, why couldn't his wife be this good of a cook?

The food was so good, that he senor ninja didn't even mind having to be sat next to Naruto, listening as the brat kid talked about all of the trouble he was causing people. He wasn't even annoyed when Naruto started claiming that he could have beaten up all the badguys himself if he had been there. This must be why Anko snuck out of the office everyday around lunch time.

"If only you won't engaged. I would have introduced you to my daughter." Inoichi joked, trying to test the water around the subject of the boy's engagement to the strong willed girl.

Kuroshi tensed up a bit, a blush reaching his face as he tried to laugh, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. Hikaru also blushed, though she tried to play it cool and continue to eat.

It was a pretty large reaction, especially for such young children. Perhaps there was more to this marriage idea than just a strategic move on the half of the Hyūga girl.

Inoichi had believed that Hikaru had declared the boy to be her betrothed as a purely political move in order to gain some control of her clan and reduce the threat of another kidnapping. The Hyūga Clan was very superstitious, almost cult like. Making up a prophecy and acting as though she was connected to something like the Path of the Asura by destiny would dismiss any debut over her right to rule her clan, regardless how much she changed them away from their old traditions.

Maybe it was something different. Maybe there had always been something and now that the news of Kuroshi's abilities was out her clan would no longer try to stop her. They were awfully young for that, but it might make sense if she was afraid that she would be married to one of her relatives before she had her chance.

While no true legal marrying age was set up in the village, as they didn't want to discourage any clans that had their own traditions from moving in, it was a general rule that people waited until they were fifteen before getting married. The Hyūga abided by this rule, but they started planning for the marriage years in advance. You could almost be sure that they had started fielding possible husbands for the girl the moment she was born, if not earlier. Her cousin was too closely blood related, but anyone more than twice removed was an option. The boys could be anywhere up to ten years older than her if the clan chose.

Inoichi and his wife would never admit it to their daughter, but they had back up plans incase she found it to difficult to find a good man. Though open arranged marriages were not so command outside of the noble class, such things were just par for the course in the world that they lived in. You're father knows someone who is looking for a match for their child and they work to see that things go smoothly.

"Hey Blonde-san, what's engaged!? Is it the reason why Shirou-san's eyes have gone all funny!?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto-kun... engaged means that... Shirou-nii and Onee-san will someday get married." Hinata tried to explain when she saw Inoichi's displeasure at being called 'Blonde-san'.

"Huh! Really!?" Naruto shouted in surprise.

"That's right, and that means someday they'll even have little baby monsters running around." Anko said as the two in question turned even redder.

"Le...lets not get too far ahead of ourselves, Anko-nee." Hikaru said, seeming to lose her legendary cool.

"Babies huh?" Naruto said, crossing his arms and looking as if he was trying to concentrate on something. He made it look really hard to do. "Anko-nee, how are Shirou-san and Rin-san going to get the babies?"

Anko's face light up as if she had been told that Christmas had just come early.

"Hinata, Ijustremember, Iwasgoingtoshowyousomething!.." "Yamanaka, youwantedtotalkright? Letsgobacktotheforgeandtalkthere!.." Hikaru and Kuroshi said respectively. Hikaru scooped up her little sister and dashed out the door while Inoichi was grabbed by a surprisingly strong arm and physically dragged away.

Well, that was one way to get the boy to talk to him in private.

* * *

The forge was completely cluttered. Not to say it was unorganized, it was just filled with things. As well as the straps of metal, raw ores, various tools and the like that were used in his smithing work, there were also an serval other things that filled the room that ranged from books and old watches to a broken down fridge and washing machine. Wires and gears littered a work table in one corner of the room where he seemed to be in the middle of fixing up a radio. On another work bench was a large war hammer set in a heavy brace with some symbols being scrawled into it. They weren't any Fuinjutsu symbols that Inoichi recognized, though that wasn't his specialty. He tried his hardest to memorize the shape to research later while Kuroshi was making room for them to sit by moving some books off of the only chairs in the room.

Though their was evidence that the furnace had been burning that morning, it was still a rather comfortable temperature in the large shake like forge. It must have good ventilation.

"Sorry the place is such a mess. I've been meaning to get rid of a few things, but its hard to tell what could prove to be useful. While I keep the house clean, I'm a bit of a hoarder." The boy said apologetically. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"

Having scanned over the room, Inoichi turned his attention towards the boy. "Yes actually. We picked something up from the field and thought it would be most appropriate for you to have it." He said, pulling out a storage scroll and opening it up in front of the boy.

He waited for a few seconds to see if Kuroshi would act and release the seal himself but the boy just picked up the scroll and looked it over. "A sealing scroll, it says, fragments." The boy read the symbol and looked up. "Can you unseal it for me?"

Inoichi smiled to hide his disappointment. He had wondered if Kuroshi would already know how to release the seal, but if the boy did, he was pretending that he didn't. "Sure, I'd be happy to." He took the scroll back and transfered the chakra needed to open it. "Release."

The scroll gave out a puff of smoke and the broken pieces of the Kumo ninja's sword lay on the parchment where the symbol had been just moments before.

Kuroshi looked at the sword and picked up the hilt, studying it. "I suppose it could be used for scrap metal." He said after a few seconds.

Inoichi was surprised. "You are't going to repair it?"

"Its broken far beyond normal means of being repaired." Kuroshi chuckled with a shake of the head.

"No worse than Hakkō Chakura Tō was." The blond ninja pointed out.

"True, I could use that method. I don't entirely see the point. The sword was made with the user in mind. Its too thick, long and unwieldy for me. The metal was made for endurance and won't hold an edge. It depends on lightning chakra to preform all of its cutting. And even if I did repair it, who would use it? Almost everyone in the village favors shorter blades or alternative weapons. Some of the ANBU and Uchiha have longer swords, but none of this absurd length. No one would have the skills needed to wield it." The boy said, tossing the hilt back down and shaking his head.

"So it isn't that you can't remake it, you just don't see the point." Inoichi said. "How exactly did you reforge Hakkō Chakura Tō? Does it have something to do with the Path of Asura?"

Kuroshi gave Inoichi an apologetic smile. "Sorry, that would be a Hiden secret."

Inoichi inwardly cursed. The boy knew about Hidens, the term referring to a ninja clan's trade secrets that were out of bounds for questioning by rules of the village. Unless it was a kinjutsu, a forbidden technique, the investigator couldn't force the boy to reveal anything.

"You sure do seem to like keeping secrets. No one had a clue that you were able to use chakra at all, let alone what you did yesterday." Inoichi said, hoping to still get something out of this. He might not have been allowed to ask direct questions, but if he could get the boy talking, he might let some things slip.

"I grew up around ninja. They all said how important secrets were, that keeping them could be the difference between life and death." He said, looking up at the ceiling. "Information is more valuable than gold." Then he looked down at Inoichi. "Do you mind if I work while you ask your questions? Akimichi-san asked me to try to make him a weapon he could actually use with his jutsu."

"Feel free." Inoichi said. A boy who group up surrounded by ninja would learn pretty fast the importance of secrets. However, the 'Information is more valuable than gold' line was not one that the blond had heard before. It was a pretty good one.

Kuroshi went to the hammer and picked up the sharpened spike and a small hammer before carefully starting to do itch work on the metal surface. "Normally, with decorative weapons, you would use acid to oxidize the metal in order to erode the shape in, but doing that messes with the flow of energy, damage the core, and can cause cracking in chakra infused metal. So I have to do it the long way."

"You make it sound so simple. Must be nice to be a genius." Inoichi said, not for the first time wondering where the boy learned it all.

Kuroshi shook his head. "I'm no genius, not like Rin."

Inoichi frowned. "While Hikaru-chan is indead a genius, most people would say that you're more talented."

"Most people would be wrong then." The boy replied, blowing a bit of the scrapped metal off of the surface of the hammer. "I'm just a sword. I can cut, I can block, I can pierce. But an earth jutsu master can plow an entire field in second, raise up a wall or even a house from the ground, dig a well, or shape a mountain. The possibilities are endless, and that is with just a single element. With all five elements, yin and yang, Fuinjutsu, and her... more unique skills, Rin can do more than I could ever hope to accomplish. What I can do may be interesting, but its not that useful and its also very limited in its own way." He slowed in his work, a smile forming on his face. "Rin is the amazing one."

'Not very useful...' Did this boy have absolutely zero self-awareness? The senor ninja felt like he had a lump in his throat from the very idea of someone considering one of the godly six powers 'not very useful'.

"The two of you really are close." Inoichi said, wanting the boy to keep talking before he realized he was letting himself get carried away.

"People think that she's manipulative and selfish, but she's really not... ok, she's manipulative, but she's not selfish. People think she takes advantage of me, but the truth is that she has always been looking out for me, ever since the..." Kuroshi's words and hands both stopped, and he shut his mouth. "I know her. That's all."

Inoichi's mouth twitched. He wondered what exactly it was the boy was about to say when he had suddenly snapped shut.

"I'm sorry, this is kind of a bit distracting. What were you asking me about again?" The boy said, getting busy on the war hammer again.

"I believe you were explaining a bit about your work to me." Inoichi said, trying to keep up his friendly tone. He knew there was something the boy had just hidden, so while Kuroshi's back was turned and he was talking about the hammer, the intelligence officer preformed a few hand signed and prepared himself to infiltrate the boy's mind. "Open-doors Mind Transmission."

He closed his eyes, transmitting his mind over to the boy's in order to read his thoughts. It was an advanced technique, one he would never have attempted on a trained mind without the assistance of special equipment. He had figured that a five year old's mind would have been undefended.

How wrong he was.

He barely even got a glimpse before he felt like a hundred blades and pierced his body. His eyes shot open and he swayed a little in his set, trying to steady himself. He could taste blood in his mouth as his body had reacted violently to the mental rebound.

His vision was still spinning when he heard Kuroshi's voice echoing through the fog that was around his mind. "Yamanaka-san, you awake?" The boy was looking over at him with a puzzled expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean to put you to sleep. I guess all this stuff is kind of boring."

The ninja swallowed down the blood, trying to keep it from making him throw up before shaking his head. "No... I'm sorry. To much paper work recently." He said trying to force a smile. "This was actually a refreshing break. Though I real should be getting back to the office. Maybe another time."

After dismissing himself, Inoichi only managed to get out of the immediate area before collapsing in a nearby alley to vomit all over the ground. He had been far to careless, and in his carelessness, he had stepped into a world that he had no place in.

That briefest of glimpses into the boy's mind was burned into his thoughts. The hill covered in swords. So many swords. His brain struggled to even comprehend how so may blades could possibly exist. They had extended out around him in all direction into the horizon. It was a place of wonder, and a sort of palpable sorrow. It was a world where the idea of a human simply didn't belong. A world that rejected his vary existence.

"The Realm of Asura." The Yamanaka ninja mumbled to himself before losing consciousness. A few ANBU who had been stationed to watch the Ena residence picked him up and carried him away to the hospital. The Hokage was informed and they all made a mental note, do not try to mind read Ena Kuroshi.

Some things the human mind was simply not equip to process.

"Damn fool tired to force himself into the Unlimited Blade Works." Shirou could only shake his head. "He should be glad it didn't kill him."

* * *

Rin buried her head in her arms, waiting for her cheeks to stop burning.

She had used some of her magecraft to listen in on Shirou's conversation with the spy. She figured that Shirou would be fine but with his tendency to not realize what was and wasn't important, it didn't hurt to make sure he didn't let anything slip.

She had heard him talking about her. About how amazing she was.

"Dammit Shirou, you're so stupid." She mumbled to herself.

She remembered that morning, how embarrassing it had been to explain to him just what she had done to get her clan's protection to extend onto him. He had also been a bit fluttered by the idea, but the thing that got to her was that he thought it was only about getting him out of trouble.

Well, actually it had been only to get him out of trouble. If it hadn't been for the possible threats to him, she wouldn't have made such a move. It only upset her a bit that he didn't consider that she might have actually had feeling for him as well. That maybe she did want to be more than just good friends or have more than a brother-sister like relationship.

Of course, Shirou had been thick even back when he had all the hormones of a full grown adult, so expecting him to understand now was just plan silly. As a magus, he had an understanding of love on a scientific and philosophical level, but like most things were human, the finer details were lost on the boy who had almost only swords in his brain.

It didn't matter. Even if he didn't understand yet, the fact that the engagement was in place would make things easier on her in the future. Sure the engagement could be called off, but what possible competition could she have? No one in this world would be able to understand Shirou the way she did. None of them understood her the way he did. So she put Shirou's stupidity aside. For now she had bigger problems.

The witnesses from Kumo would need to be dealt with. Rin had spent all night working on how to erase their memories of what had really happened and set up false memories in their place. But for her or Shirou to do it in person was not advisable. Not with how much attention they were already getting.

With that in mind, she continued to engrave runes and glyphes into the back of two fake ninja head bands, one with the Kiri symbol and another Kumo's, each with a line scratched through them.

That night, they would tie up the loose ends.

* * *

 **The Ninja Villages are a community, so they do have laws in place that the ninja have to follow, just like the police can't just do whatever they want in the name of the law. I want to make this very clear so people don't keep asking why the ninja don't start torturing Shirou for information. Its because that would be against their own laws. If they go around breaking them, then the community falls apart and the village becomes just a bunch of warring clans again.**

 **Its a federal style of government. The individual clans are supported by the village's counsel, but the village depends on those clans in order to exist. So each of them keeps the other in check.**

 **So when something like Shirou comes along they have to weigh the risk involved in forcefully questioning him with the likely benefits. With so many clan's interested in him as a blacksmith, it was not beneficial enough for them to try to interrogate him.**

* * *

 **(All of this is written by someone who is not Buddhist, so it might not be a hundred percent accurate. I hope I don't insult anyone by giving explaining it my best shot. This is meant to inform or perhaps inspire people to learn about your culture, not insult it.)**

 **The Six Paths in Naruto are a reference to the Six Realms of Suffering in Buddhism. The Paths themselves are supposed to be the way in which you balance your bad and good karma and escape from the Realms and into enlightenment. Or that's my understanding of it at least.**

 **Each of the Six Realms deals with a different major Karma, sort of like the seven deadly sins (I think they don't really consider lust to be a karma and if they do its combined with greed under the label 'desire').**

 **The Realm of Asura would be likely linked with Jealousy. Good karma in this realm being admiration that inspires you to improve yourself, bad karma being what you normally consider jealousy which makes you resent the person who is better than you.**

 **The Asura as a race were almost divine, but not really divine. So they lived in constant jealousy of the Devas who were divine beings, and they suffered endlessly because of this jealousy.**

 **Shirou, having admiration of Rin would be considered an example of the Path of the Asura.**

 **If Rin was given a path, it would most likely be Devas.**

 **In Buddhism, the Devas were as I said, divine beings and were filled with pride about it. The problem being that when you are divine, it is hard to find something to do. Everything is so effortless and they live for so long that nothing they do holds any value to them and so they constantly struggle with their own self worth. So to feel like they accomplish things, they must turn to the mortals who live short lives and who have to do things the slow and hard way. Taking pleasure in the changes they make for the mortals that are supposed to make their lives easier.**

 **So the Realm of the Devas would deal with pride. Good Karma is having a strong self worth, bad karma is arrogance or self pity. The Path of the Devas would be find worth in others rather than sole in yourself.**

 **While Rin is definitely prideful in her own skills, she takes her pleasure in helping Hinata and Shirou.**


	16. Chapter 16

Guard duty in the prisoners' ward was one of the least glamorous jobs around. The need for the place to be utterly silent in order to instill psychological fear in the prisoners before their time for questioning made the place unbelievable dull. It didn't even have the nice sun, open air, and pleasant conversation you get from guarding the front gate.

The only job worse than guarding the prison would have to be the night shift guarding the prison. But because this job was monumentally awful, it also paid pretty well. So there was still a good supply of people to stand at the door to the newest prisoners from Kumo. Though they had to be paid extra to insure that no one decided that three people was two more than they really needed. Attacks during peace talks were generally frowned on if not expected by this point, and Kumo had a history of trying to kidnap little girls from Konoha. So a certain level of hatred was a given.

The prisoners hadn't been interrogated yet. They had only had their pre-interrogation screening, where they were analyzed, and introduced to their interrogators as well as some of their favorite tools before being sent back to their cells for the night to piss themselves about what is going to happen to them once the real deal starts. The imagination is an untrained minds worst enemy.

The place was so quiet, that when the sound of something metal bouncing on the floor reached their ears, it sounded like the crack of thunder. The dozen Chunin were immediately on guard, turning towards the direction of the sound with hands at their weapons.

With an exchange of a code preformed by tipping the stone walls, three of them broke off from the group to scout the area where the sound came from. They moved quietly through the darkness, trying to determine the source of the nosy one of their feet brushed up against something on the floor, causing more noise to echo through the hall. The guilty ninja bent down to pick up the object. "A soda can?" He mumbled in surprise.

The scouting group spun around as they heard several thuds against the floor accompanied by the ringing of metal being dropped against the ground. A shadow was perched over the of guards who were all sprawled out over the ground.

The scout holding the can dropped it to reach for his weapon, but the moment the can hit the ground it popped and a heavy mist exited it. The remaining guards gasped as the smoke filled their lungs and in a few more seconds they were unconscious.

"Well that was anticlimactic." A tall man with blue hair and red eyes mumbled as he straightened up over the unconscious group he had just taken out. His spear rose up and was set against his shoulder. He was wearing an odd dark blue body suit that seemed to blend into the shadows, thick enough to be more than just a jump suit but not true armor. Around his neck was a headband with the symbol of Kiri on it with a slash through the center.

"Don't complain, we are just hear to do a job, and nothing more." Said a woman with long purple hair and a figure that could make most men's eyes widen with shock. A headband with the symbol of Kumo was tied over her eyes, acting as a blind fold. "Since when have you been a thrill seeker?"

"Sorry, you know how we magus are. We change our perceptions in order to achieve optimum results. Guess I'm subconsciously acting like Lancer now." The blue haired man said with a shrug.

When Rin had told Shirou she was going to use a mixture of magecraft and chakra to cement a transformation jutsu around the two of them during this little mission, he hadn't expected the forms that she would choose.

So the Faker was finding himself impersonating the Hound of Culann while Rin had taken the form of the fallen goddess of beauty. It was a bit of a surreal feeling.

"Just say close by while I do my work." Rin said as she worked over to the door of the prison. There was a seal on the door. "Would you mind being a gentleman and opening the door for me?"

"Sure thing." Shirou said, pulling out a traced copy of Rule Breaker and quickly destroying the seal like they had done with so many others on their way into the building.

Shirou leaned up against the wall, feeling the barrier to contain noise in the air around them. He shifted the steel gray spear between his fingers.

He hadn't used Lancer's spear. That would have been horrible. His objective didn't involve killing everyone in sight. No, the spear he traced up wasn't a famous Noble Phantasm, but an old enchanted spear called Lián Dāo. It wasn't a weapon he would trace often as it sort of defeated the point of a weapon.

The mystic codex on this spear was something of a puzzler, taking advantage of another loophole in magecraft; the absence of absolution. You can never truly know cause and effect and it is one of the easiest elements of the world to bend if not break. For example, if someone is cut, then they are wounded. If they are wounded, then they feel pain. It is a simple train of logic, but with a bit of manipulation it can become, someone is cut, therefore they feel pain. The wound simply being removed from the equation.

Thus the spear could remove targets without the need to kill them.

Actually, Shirou wished he had more chances to use the spear. Sadly, taking the enemy alive was rarely a choice. One should always remove the threat before it can get out of hand. Letting targets live and get to keep whatever they learn about you, that is a recipe for danger. Which is way he and Rin were currently removing any information the ninja may have collected on them. Keep the damage to a minimum.

There had not been any sound, but Shirou still sensed the man's approach. His eyes moved towards the indivdual who lurked in the shadows, unaware the Shirou both knew he was there and could see him with his reinforced eyes. He had better take care of this before Rin was done. While the witnesses could live, as they had no clue what was actually going on, letting people raise the alarm would cause more trouble.

* * *

Morino Ibiki had been making preparations for the next days interrogation. He had little doubt that they would get every last scrap of information the men had even without having to harm a hair on their heads. His mastery of the human psychology was renown, and he rarely had to resort to actual physical torture.

What he hadn't expected was for the prison to come under attack. The moment he had noticed something was off with the alert systems, he didn't check for any technique difficulties. Instead, he sent for someone else to do that while he went straight to the cells to make sure nothing was wrong in person. Experience had taught him never to assume anything, so even though they have had technique problems in the past but never any kind of prison break, he still wasn't taking any chances.

He moved silently, even with his dark trench coat that he wore in order to cover as much of his scarred boy as he possible could. His eyes had long since gotten used to being inside of the dark tunnels, so while his vision was impaired, it wasn't gone completely. He moved though the shadows within the darkness, as he approached where his men should have been standing guard.

The change was sudden, one moment their was not even a peep, the next step he heard the screams of prisoners. On the ground was the dozen guards who had been stationed in front of the door and the dark shape of a tall man holding a long spear was leaning up against the wall in a casual position.

Invaders, in the prison? How had they gotten so far without alerting anyone or tripping any of the alarms? These prisoners were brand new. Had they been researching the prison for months in advance in case they needed to infiltrate? That seemed unlikely, and considering the screams, it wasn't as if this was a rescue party.

So this man was a guard and he had one or more partners inside of the cell. Ibiki guessed that there was only one inside of the cells themselves, perhaps another performing a patrol to check for trouble, but if they had another person, they would not only have a single one standing guard. Unless this individual was such a professional that they didn't believe that anyone could possibly make it past him.

"You just going to stand their watching me all day?" The man said. Ibiki was shocked, he had believed himself to be completely concealed, yet the man knew he was there. He quickly considered his options, but they were shot down by the man. "Just come out here. You try to run and you won't get far. The second you try to turn your back I'll already have pushed a spear though it. You're a specialist when it comes to interrogations, but in combat, you are hardly any better than these guys. Hunting you would be a breeze."

Ibiki didn't respond immediately. The man was right. Though he had been made a Tokubetsu Jounin for his skills in interrogation, the twenty year old man was no combat expert. His skills in fighting and chakra control were enough to pass the Chunin Exam, but no better. He hadn't had time to train them in years, and his body had been left forever weakened by his experience in Kirigakure. If this man had indeed taken out all of the Chunin guards without being spotted, then he would not stand a chance at getting away.

However, while there was no chance in him escaping, in a fight, nothing was ever certain.

Ibiki drew his blade and prepared himself to try to do whatever he could. If it was his time to die for his village then so be it.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" The scar faced young man demanded.

The spearman chuckled to himself. "Does anyone actually answer that question?"

The move was so fast that Ibiki hardly had time to attempt a guard. There had been nothing in the man's stance or tone to suggest that he was going to attack. One moment he was completely at ease, the next he had covered half the distance between the two in a single step, that reminded the scarred ninja of the pounce of a large beast, the spear head flashing up towards his neck.

Ibiki swung his short blade up to deflect the attack, but right before the blades met, the spear was draw back, letting his blade pass by before lunging like a snake. The change in momentum gave only a slight window of opening for Ibiki to dodge.

Horrible pain shot through his left shoulder as the head of the blade sliced through it, but the pain was nothing to Ibiki, a man who had suffered physical and mental pain beyond the imagination of normal individuals. He didn't hesitate for second. The moment his body hit the ground, he rolled, throwing his short blade up at the man who deflected it in mid flight, even though the blade should have been invisible to him in the near perfect darkness.

Ibiki used a hidden weapon seal inside of his right jacket sleeve to summon up a bit of gun powder over the floor, igniting it with a spark to force the man to keep his distance for a moment, as well as hopefully blind him if he was not trained to deal with the sudden light.

The scarred ninja checked his body's damage, expecting to find himself bleeding out and his muscles in to much disarray to continue to be used. But to his shock, there was no wound at all. His arm was still usable.

Had the attack missed? No, he had felt the pain from when the blade had pieced his body. He knew that he had. His mind was not effected by any genjutsu. He narrowed his eyes at the man.

In the dying light from the moments fire. He was dressed in an odd blue jumpsuit with metal shoulder guards. His hair also seemed to be a dark blue, but the thing that was most interesting to the interrogator was the missing nin headband around his neck.

He reached into his jacket again, activating two more seals and retrieving a pair of kunai to help defend himself. The man's guard seemed to be down. He rushed through the fire, ignoring the burning on his legs as he used the flames to hide his movement and his attack.

Didn't make a difference. His swipes with the kunai met nothing but air as the spear head went straight for his chest. Pain again shook through the scarred ninja's body, but again, there was no injury. He pushed through, continuing to attack, but each time his attack's were easily avoided or parried and his body was struck again by the strange weapon.

Any normal man would have passed out from the pain, but Ibiki kept going. Trying to figure out what was going on as he continued to try to pin down the spearman. It felt like something out of a dream.

After it became apparent that cutting him wasn't doing any good, the spearman disarmed the Konoha ninja, before smashing him in the stomach with the butt of his spear.

Ibiki staggered back and pretended to cough and he pushed up the pouch of oil hidden inside of his throat. The oil spread into his mouth near the piece of flint hidden in his molars.

The technique was an old one, and an unpredictable one, using no handsigns that could give the enemy warning. Ibiki couldn't even use a normal fire jutsu. but by spitting the oil out as he ignited the flint in his mouth, he could take the enemy off guard.

The pain involved in using this was unbelievable. It was considered a kinjutsu, a forbidden technique, as it mutilated the users mouth, if not destroying it beyond the skill of a medical ninja to repair. A mistake in its use could lead to death. It was only to be used in the most dire of moments.

Ibiki was preparing himself to use the it, pulling the air into his lungs that he would need to compress the oil pouch. In the narrow corridor, and without any time to defend, the attack would surely kill. But as he opened his mouth wide, the spearman moved in, shoving his hand into Ibiki's mouth, stopping him from igniting the oil.

The ninja didn't gag. He had trained down such reactions. He tired to get the spearman away from him, throwing a punch at the man's stomach while the two were so close together. The blow hit, marking the first time he had managed to hit the blue haired man, but as they were pushed apart the man pulled the oil pouch out of Ibiki's throat.

Ibiki staggered as he then needed to recover his air. How had the man known about the oil? Even if there was a bright light, it would have been hidden in his mouth.

"The hell do you think you're doing? If I hadn't smelt the oil, you would have just killed your own allies as well as yourself." The spearman half growled, throwing the oil bag to the side.

Ibiki was a bit taken aback. He only just noticed the light breathing from the men on the ground. They weren't dead, only unconscious. He remembered how the spear didn't seem to cut, only induce pain. He hide his surprise with the skill of a master.

"I see. That weapon of yours can't kill. Was it your unwillingness to kill that lead to you going missing?" He asked the blue haired man, spitting out a bit of the oil from his mouth. As he checked his stomach, he found a bruise from the butt of the spear. So it was only the spear head that had the strange properties. "I suppose living in the bloody mist would be rough on a man like you."

The spearman, still posed to attack, paused. "Maybe. How about you, Morino Ibiki-san, you're pretty much the boogie man of the intelligence world, aren't you? Why'd you go into this line of work? Not the most heroic job out there." His voice was cocky, maybe even angry, but he was curious.

The best way to get information was to give information. "I took the job to best serve the village, and to remind myself of my failures. So that I would never be allowed to forget why I am alone."

The spearman let out a sound of disgust. "You are one of those kinds of people, huh?" After a short moment of silence, he spoke again. "Lancer... I'm called Lancer. Though I doubt you will find it in any of your Bingo books. You're right, I don't like killing when I can help it. It's a pity how often killing is a necessity in my line of work."

Lancer? What a strange name. It didn't form well on the ninja's tongue. He wondered what it meant.

The spearman then spread his stance even further. His body stretched out, his spear head low to the ground, one hand loosening near the center while the other twisted near the back.

"Sorry, this is really going to hurt. No hard feelings." The spearman said.

Ibiki had been prepared for it. He had been prepared, but completely powerless. The move was so... perfect. His attempt to dodge it could have only been considered laughable. The spearhead went straight through his body, pushing him to the wall where he was nailed to the stone.

The pain was beyond words. No one should be able to experience such pain and stay sane, let allow awake. But Ibiki endured.

Two swift hand signs and then he throw his black trench coat open to reveal two massive explosive tags. "Release..." He gasped through his agony.

Some bits of fire appeared around the seals edge, moving inwards to where they would release the explosion held within. Ibiki closed his eyes, ready to embrace death.

But the explosion never came. He opened his eyes as the spear was pulled out of his chest and he received a hard punch to the face. He was pulled out of his trench coat by the man and tossed to the ground. His coat was on fire from the seal's flames. But what had happened to the explosion?

"You bastard! I can't believe you were about to kill yourself!" The spearman stood in the light of the fire, a look of anger on his face. He was shouting and waving around a small oddly shaped knife. "Did you even know what you were dying for!? Treat your life with more care, dammit!" Ibiki's head was still hammering from the pain, but he still tried to get up. "Why do you keep moving?"

"If it was for Konoha... I would gladly give my life... This pain is nothing." The ninja said, trying to get to his feet again.

"How stupid." A calm voice joined them. Ibiki was shocked as the stone underneath him quickly started to swallow him up. In just a moment, only his head was above the surface of the stone. "Lancer, you are lucky all of your playing around hasn't brought us any undo attention."

The woman was... unbelievable. Her dark purple hair reached down to her waste. A pale complexion that was beautified even further by the light of the dancing flames. Her arms were crossed underneath a more than impressive chest. As she turned towards him, Ibiki saw that her eyes were covered by a missing nin headband. He hadn't noticed until that very moment that the sounds of the prisoner's screams had stopped.

"Sorry, Rider. This one is rather stubborn. Did you get what you needed?" Lancer said, putting the knife away and replacing the spear on his shoulder. He started to rub the back of his neck, an embarrassed expression on his face.

"Yes, I did. Now lets move, before more complications show up." The woman said, turning away and walking as if she was in no hurry.

Lancer shook his head before glancing back at Ibiki. "Let me tell you something. Heroes die for two reasons. Either they are given a task that is simple impossible to survive, or they forget why they were trying to be heroes in the first place. Go find yourself something worth living for. Get a girlfriend or a hobby or something." He said before moving off after Rider.

Ibiki was stuck there, staring after were they went. The only thing he had to do before people showed up to dig him out was think.

Get a girlfriend? Not very likely. His body was heavily scarred. The last time he walked around outside without something to cover the top of his head, all the children in the street burst into tears at the sight of him.

A hobby maybe? Hm... Well, he did like those cat shaped good luck charms. Perhaps he would start collecting.

* * *

"So... they don't remember anything?" The Hokage said in disbelief when the Jounin had gathered again.

Ibiki was standing before them, a large lump on his face covered by a bandage, but otherwise completely as usual. He was standing at attention, giving them the results of the mornings interrogation.

"No, they remember something, its just not what happened." Ibiki repeated. "They believe that they did try to kidnap the girls, but that is where they get confused. According to them, they were attacked by a group of missing nin who were trying to steal their prize from them. They were taken off guard been an ambush and slaughtered, but when Konoha ninjas got close, the missing nin figured themselves outnumbered and fled."

The Jounin were all shocked. They didn't even know what to think about it.

"The missing nin from the night before had something to do with this, though I don't know how or why." Ibiki continued. "If I had only heard this in reports, I would have said it was impossible. No jutsu exists that can create memories of this quality. There exist jutsu that can bury memories by weakening the cognitive connections, but not creating memories. On top of that, nothing we did could get them to remember what really happened. We were as thorough as time has allowed, which is a good deal more thorough than we expect the Kumo's questioners to be."

"Do you have any idea why they might have done this?" Asuma asked, reaching for one of his cigarettes. He had a feeling this was just going to be one of those headache days.

"A few theories, though nothing certain. If they wanted to gather information and then cover it up, killing the men would have been easier. We were unable to identify either of the intruders in our records. If I head to take a guess, the man who called himself Lancer seemed allergic to the idea of people dying for a cause. An attempt to avoid war is a possible reason to do this, though it still begs the question of who they are and how they did it." Ibiki said, shaking his head. "His weapon was using an odd jutsu that prevented him from physically harming people though it still inflicted pain as a way to immobilize or dissuade enemies."

"An the woman, what can you tell us about her?" Kikashi asked.

"The woman... I didn't get a good chance to evaluate her. Though there was something unnatural about her." Ibiki said, his brows pushed together.

"And what would that be?" Shibi asked, after the scarred ninja had been quiet for a few seconds.

"I think her boobs might have been bigger than Tsunade-sama's." Ibiki said seriously. Most of the men in the room flushed and the women seemed unsure what to think. "I wish I knew whether or not they were real. It could be important information in her psychiatric profiling. To desire such a figure would likely stem from..."

"Morino-san, that is enough!" The Hokage said, breaking the man out of his punderings. The old man coughed into his hand a few times, trying to force down a flush. "You have been through a great deal in the last day. Go and get some rest. You can write up your report on a later date, though all information about our surprise visits would be considered a B-rank secret until further notice."

The interrogator nodded, snapping his heels together and giving a short bow. "Understood, Hokage-sama." He said. He was out of the room before a smile passed over his face. Teasing people was rather entertaining and less morally questionable that torture.

Once the door was closed the Hokage sighed and shook his head. "Well, this is a twist." He mumbled, starting to rub at his temples.

"It solves a fairly large problem of ours. A scapegoat is no longer needed." Danzou said with a nod. "But it opens up new questions."

"Who the hell were those people!?" Stone Lee shouted.

"Whoever they were, they probably know full well what happened with the kids, and they want to keep it as quiet as possible." Shikaku said, resting his chin in his hands. "To many unknown factors for us to make any moves. We can't start asking about for information. Searching for them will give away more information than it will retrieve. We can't even conform that they were missing nin to begin with. How troublesome."

"For now, we will do what we can. Keep ears open for anyone asking about for the children, and maintain watch. Someone will need to create false report that are in line with what the captured Kumo ninja had said." The Hokage said. "Beyond that, this matter seems to have been brought to a close."

"Not quite." Uchiha Fugaku said calmly. "There is still the matter of the turn coat among the Kumo ninja. We have yet to discuss what needs to be done about him. Needless to say, if he is returned to their village, he will die with the rest. I don't feel like it is a fate deserved of the young man."

The Hokage nodded. "Yes. I've already decided to have him listed among the dead. His life as a ninja is over, lest he catch the eye of his village. We will give him some money to start a life on and release him to do as he pleases. Should he chose to stay in the village, he may stay as a civilian under watch."

The Jounin seemed to have little problem with this, though it was not to Danzou's liking. Hiashi sat in the room listening to them all talk, marveling at his stroke of luck and worrying about what kind of people had just gotten news of his daughter.

Regardless, they could finally put these events behind them, and more on into the future.

* * *

 **Shirou channeled his inner Lancer for a bit. Not as potent as his inner Archer.**


	17. Chapter 17

Shirou felt really embarrassed.

Thinking back, he should have been more careful. Every magus, even a half baked one like him, should know the fundamental pieces of identity; form, purpose, origin and history. And as the Faker King, he should know better than anyone how effective it was to recreate even three of the four.

Through his traces, he could imitate any weapon's form, purpose and history. Even the fakes were unable to tell that they were not the originals, and while the difference in origin allowed the World to see them for what they were, they could still wield tremendous power.

The form of Lancer had been placed over his own by Rin's modified transformation jutsu, and the history of Lancer had come from his weapon anchored deep within Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works. It was something that he often pulled from in order to draw on the skills and combat experience the warrior had possessed.

From the very beginning of their little mission, Shirou had felt a little off, but it hadn't been until his 'Master' had ordered him to stand outside like a guard dog that purpose had also been copied.

Throughout his fight, Shirou had believed he was Lancer as well as Shirou. Lancer's little quarks, his speech patterns, his moves, his personal beliefs, everything about the man had been copied and mingled with his own to the point where Shirou was losing his grip. He hadn't realized how bad it was until he had to restrain the urge to give a wolf whistle at the sight of 'Rider's' butt, an extremely non-Shirou-like action that would have definitely gotten him killed.

So the following day found Shirou out in his garden, trying to reorganize his thoughts as his body preformed the mechanical task of pulling out the weeds. His thoughts started at his origin and spread outwards, recalling what it meant to be Shirou. Though through thinking about it, he came up to the philosophical questions that came from the fact that he wasn't Shirou, not really, but at the same time, he was.

He was just lucky Rin had decided to use Lancer's form instead of Archer's, knowing how much Shirou disliked being reminded of his relation to the possible future. If he had been pretending to be Archer, then this would have been an entirely different level of headache.

Shirou wasn't sure why Rin had chosen Rider's form. He supposed she just looked the part of an infiltrator. Rin had never really had any personal opinions about the Servant, as far as Shirou was aware, though she had hated the Master more than anything else that had ever existed. Caster and Gilgamesh were the only Servants that Rin had really hated, so it was no wonder that Caster hadn't been her first choose.

Rin was not suffering the same problems as Shirou, as only Rider's form was copied, the weakest of the four piece of identity. She had only started laughing when Shirou confessed to the problem. A Faker really needed to be careful about what he pretended to be.

Shirou was regaining his sense of self when a now familiar disruption to nature entered his immediate area. Sure enough Naruto was walking along, hands in his pockets with an upset look on his face as he kicked around a stone.

"Something the matter, Naruto-kun?" Shirou asked the boy.

"Hinata-chan ain't come out of her room! I want to play ninja with her but she's been acting all weird! So I tried to show her how much fun we'd be haven't, but she started crying and Rin-san hit me!" Naruto complained angrily. "What's the matter with her!? I just wanted to play outside!"

Shirou understood what was going on and sighed. "Poor Hinata." He mumbled sadly. "Naruto-kun. I know you are just trying to be a friend, but you are going to have to try to be a bit more understanding. Hinata-chan went through a lot. She's still scared because of the kidnapping."

"But that was forever ago! Why should that mean we can't play now!?" Naruto said, stumping his foot like the child he was.

'Forever ago? It's been two days, Naruto.' Shirou thought, shaking his head. Sometime Naruto's lack of understanding of others was a headache. It wasn't that he was self centered really, he didn't value himself over other, he just didn't understand what anyone else needed. Shirou supposed that was the nature of most children his age. Even sweet little Hinata was like that at times.

"These kind of things are hard to recover from. Hinata was really scared and confused. She was thrust into a very dangerous situation when she was supposed to feel safe, and because of that, she is having a hard time feeling safe anywhere. To you, it is just going outside to play, but try to think about it from her perceptive. Even if she knows that she is safe, there is fear rooted deep inside of her now." Shirou said, trying to be patient with the four year old boy.

Naruto was silent for a few moments, his face screwed up in through as he tried to figure things out. "So, you're saying that she's not feeling well, right? Like she's sick or something. It's not that she don't want to play with me, she just isn't up to it. Like when I had that tummy ache and couldn't eat the ramen, even though I really wanted to."

'That was because you ate melted ice cream you found in a dumpster.' Shirou still hadn't figured out what had motivated the boy to do that. Nothing about that stuff looked even remotely appetizing, and it smelled horrible. Oh well, it was as good of a point of reference as any he supposed.

"Something like that, but while you got better after a good night's sleep, this is going to take a lot more time for Hinata to bounce back from." Shirou said, trying to think just how you explain post traumatic stress disorder to a four year old with ADHD. It was amazing that Naruto's attention span had lasted this long.

"So what your saying is... we need to get her some ramen?" Naruto asked, taking his best shot at it.

Shirou closed his eyes, resisting the urge to just go and get Anko to try to explain it to him. She was better with getting the kid to understand things, though it usually resulted is some kind of traumatic event. "No Naruto-kun, this isn't something that ramen can solve."

Naruto gasped in shock, and a look of worry crossed his face. "Is it really that bad!?"

"We will do everything we can to help her, but this could take years to recover from." Shirou said, a world of fire appearing inside of his mind's eye.

The screams of the people desperate for help echoed in his ears as he was forced to keep walking, ignoring their cries. His own body battered and bleeding. Smoke filled his lungs making it hard to breath. There was blood in his eye, but his arm wouldn't go up to wipe it away.

Shirou had to surprise a small shiver as he came back to reality. "It will probably stay with her for the rest of her life, in one way or another."

"No!" Naruto shouted, seeming angry though the little boy wasn't sure about what he was angry at. "I'll make sure that Hinata gets better! If I can't, then what right do I have to call myself the fifth Hokage!" He then turned around and ran back towards the house.

"Since when did he have any right to call himself that?" Shirou's head dropped. Then he turned back to his gardening.

* * *

Hiruzen walked straight through the hospital. No point asking for directions when he knew exactly where he was going. He could smell the scent of flowers in the air from three corridors down.

Sure enough, when he opened the door to the blond ninja's room, he found it completely filled with flowers to the point where there was hardly enough room to walk. "I see your wife and daughter have again ignored the hospital's judgment of what constitutes a reasonable number of flowers. I'm going to get a complant about how this interfers with cleanliness protocol, I just know it." Hiruzen mumbled as he entered the room. He pulled out a small piece of cloth he brought with him and tied it over his face to protect himself from the overwhelming aroma, before moving a large purple flower from the visitor's seat so that he could sit down.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but you know how Yuri-chan and Ino-chan get." Inoichi said with an apologetic smile.

"I'm not going to be the one to try to stop them, just try to stay out of the hospital so I don't have to hear about it." Hiruzen said, grabbing a clip board of the tests they had done on the man so he could check his health for himself. He had learned that when asked, people usually just told him they were fine. Inoichi was not fine, not yet. He would probably be bedridden for a week at the very least. "Inoichi-san, what happened?"

The intelligence officer leaned back into his pillow and closed his eyes. "I don't know how to even describe it. It wasn't a genjutsu barrier, but his mind itself that did this to me. It was like... being inside of a volcano. The conditions inside his mind were just such that my consciousness could not survive there. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life. I plan on searching through my clan's recorders after I am released from the hospital." The Hokage watched as the man before him began to chuckle. "So this is what happens when a mortal dares to step into the realm of a god."

"You really believe that Kuroshi-kun holds the Path of Asura?" Hiruzen asked the man.

Inoichi nodded. "I only saw it for a moment, but I can't think of anything else it could be. It was... an entire world of weapons. You should have seen it, Hokage-sama."

"Considering what seeing it has done to you, I think I will pass." Hiruzen grunted, putting the clipboard back where he found it. "You heard what happened with our Kumo guests last night?"

Inoichi nodded. "Yeah, I heard about the trouble with a pair of strays in the big house. I find it a little hard to believe though."

"Don't we all." Hiruzen agreed. "What's your opinion on these 'strays'?"

"There is only one thing I can think of that might be able to do what that woman did." Inoichi said, looking up at the Hokage from his hospital bed. "I'm guessing you thought of it too, the reason she was covering her eyes."

"The Mangekyō Sharingan." The Hokage guessed, receiving a nod in response. "Dammit. The Uchiha are not going to like this."

"It would also explain why there is a missing nin from Kumogakure that we have never heard of. They would want to keep anything to do with stolen eyes as quiet as possible." Inoichi said. "The spearman's name is odd, and spears themselves are a rarity among skilled fighters, as they are looked down on as being grunt weapons. There are only a few real schools of combat that focus on spears, and all of them are from the Land of This. This 'Lancer' is most likely a descendant of a Rounin, or maybe even a Rounin himself that somehow got mixed up with Kirigakure. Though that doesn't explain why we have never heard of him before. It could be that he is on Kirigakure's records as dead rather than missing."

"So a spear wielding, wonder, pacifist Samurai and an unknown woman with a stolen pair of the most powerful eyes have taken an interest in the Path of Asura. Doesn't explain why, or how they even knew? Perhaps the Mangekyō Sharingan has something to do with that too. Each awakening is unique and brings different effects." Hiruzen said, scratching at his chin.

"Were they alone or part of a larger group. Did they have a man on the inside? How long have they been in village and are they still here? Did they only find out about the Path when we did or have they been watching Kuroshi-kun before then? If they were watching the child, have they noticed Uzumaki Naruto as well? There are too many questions, and we have so few ways to get answers." Inoichi said, shaking his head. "We should move the children, put them somewhere where we can keep an eye on them and keep them safe, away from the rest of the village. Either inside of the Hyūga or Uchiha compounds would be best."

The Hokage scoffed. "I'm sure that would go over well. The council would throw the mother of all fits if I suggested such a thing. Besides, Hikaru-chan isn't likely to go along with it, and trying to force her to do something she doesn't want to do will only lead to disaster. We couldn't move them even if we wanted to."

Hikaru had made it very clear her stance on staying at the Hyūga complex very clear, and the council would collectively wet themselves at the idea of moving Naruto in with the Uchihas. The Hyūga Clan would take it as a personal insult if he suggested that their heirs move in with the Uchiha for protection. Not to mention the balance of power issues involved in placing Kuroshi anywhere. The only reason the Clans weren't in a panic about the possible union between Kuroshi and Hikaru was because they believed that Hikaru had finally had enough of her grandfather and intended to separate herself from the rest of the Hyūga Clan and create a new Clan with the boy, her little sister, and Naruto as the starting point. Strong as such a Clan would be, it would still be rather small.

"If we can get the council and the children to understand the danger, then they might be more willing to agree." Inoichi suggested.

"...Maybe. But I want to give them a chance to be children." The Hokage said, lacing his fingers together and looking up at the ceiling. "They deserve that much at least." A moment of silence passed between the two men. "I think I can hear footsteps coming this way. Visiting hours are probably over. Get some bed rest and don't overdue it on the painkiller. Can't have you getting loose lips on us."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Inoichi said, giving a short bow of the head as the Village Leader left. Returning to his office to find even more paperwork waiting for him. Dammit, just as he thought, letters from the hospital involving all of those stupid flowers.

* * *

Rin tried to struggle, but the bounds holding her hand and feet wouldn't budge an inch. Her limbs felt numb from lose of circulation and her body ached from the struggle. Her magic circuits were sealed and she was tired to chair in a dark basement.

She could feel her own helplessness pressing down on her as her pointless struggle drained her more and more. Fear and desperation pumped through her body, clouding her mind and causing her breathes to become increasingly rapid.

"Why are you struggling?" A flat voice echoed through the darkness that surrounded her, causing her to shiver. She knew that voice. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see him, not wanting him to be there, but for some reason, even with her eyes closed, she could still see. She could see Kotomine Kirei standing their in his priest's garb, with the cross of the church around his neck. His cold eyes staring vacantly towards her as he remained indifferent to her suffering.

No, not indifferent, there was an upward twist to his lips. The psychotic bastard was taking pleasure from Rin's struggle, from her fear of him.

"Is this what you wanted, Tohsaka-san. To be able to touch the Root." Kirei said walking towards her, his footsteps seemed to cause the world to shake. Rin wanted to get free. She wanted to get as far away from his man as possible.

"Stay away!" She shrieked, pulling at her binds with all her strength, but to no avail.

"Do you think you can fight against this? It has been your fate to be a part of this ritual. Your entire life has been purely to serve this purpose, to become the new Holy Grail." Kirei said. Rin turned her head away from him as he stood straight in front of her, but the man grabbed her chin and forced her to look forward. He held something up with his other hand. Something that made Rin want to gag. It was a heart. "Now, become the new vessel!"

He pulled back his hand, and drove the heart straight into Rin's chest.

* * *

Rin's eyes shot open and she found herself in the room she had taken at the Ena residence, in the same bed with little Hinata.

Her body was shaking and covered in sweat. Her muscles were numb from the tension. She couldn't control her breathing. "It... was a dream..." She said to herself again and again, trying to get her body back under control.

She got up, his legs still shaking a bit and stumbled towards the door. She didn't want to wake up Hinata. She didn't want her little sister to see her like this. She didn't want anyone to see her like this.

To see her scared.

Rin moved off towards the kitchen to pour herself a glass of cold water. Something to help her cool off.

It was an oxymoron, a flooded mind. To many thoughts to think. Her world buzzed as she tried to regain her focus. She hated it. How could something as stupid as those second rate fools trying to kidnap her shake her so much. They had nothing on Berserker. They had nothing on... that man.

She shivered again at the thought of Kirei. Berserker had been a feral monster, but Kirei had been something different, worse even. While Berserker was insane, Kirei couldn't be described as either sane or insane. He was true evil, a deviant who found pleasure in cruelty. Even All the World's Evils hadn't made her skin crawl quite like that fake priest had.

"Rin?" She jumped at the sound of her own name, the glass of water falling from her hand and spilling onto the ground as the cup rolled away from her. She had been so confused that she hadn't paid any attention to her surroundings.

"Dammit Shirou, don't sneak up on me like that?" Rin said, trying to regain her poise.

"Rin, what's wrong?" Shirou asked her as he took a hand towel and started to clean up the split water.

"What makes you think that there is something wrong?" Rin said defensively.

"Rin, its six in the morning. I'm pretty sure the Nine Tailed Fox could have leveled the entire village and you still won't wake up before at least ten if I didn't wake you up." Shirou said giving her a questioning look. Rin's sleeping habits hadn't changed since reincarnation, that is for sure.

"Nothing is wrong, Shirou!" Rin said. Her voice was not convincing and Shirou could see her shaking slightly. "I'm not... a child. I can take care of myself." Rin closed her eyes, trying to get a grip on herself. This was not her. She was not weak.

It came as a surprise to her, the pair of arms wrapping around her as Shirou pulled her into a hug.

"Shirou?"

"You don't need to tell me anything, and I might not be able to understand, but I will always be here for you. You don't need to be afraid to open up to me." Shirou said, patting Rin on the back. Rin's lip trembled and then it came out and she broke down into tears. She stood there for a long time, crying until all the stress left her body, and Shirou stood with her, right by her side, just like he always had been and he always would be.

* * *

 **Shirou, Rin and Hinata all have PTSDs, and Naruto has ADHD.**

 **Debating whether or not to have Shirou and/or Rin interfere with the Uchiha incident, and how I could go about setting it up.**

 **If I'm going to, then I would need to start setting the scene next chapter. So I suppose you will all find out soon what I decide. Either way there will probably be a fair sized time skip.**

* * *

 **I remind everyone that not everything I say is canon. I am using various things from Philosophy for the mechanics for Magecraft/Ninjutsu, rather than anything said in canon or on the wiki. Nor is my knowledge of the history or story canon in either Fate or Naruto entirely accurate. Not that I personally care too much. That kind of stuff is like history, and history was always my least favorite subject in school, and a good self contained story can be written without it.**

 **If you wish to suggest changes or additions that you think will improve the story, then feel free, though I maintain the right to disagree with you.**

 **If you have complaints without any suggestions then you can fuck right off, because that's not how criticism is supposed to work.**

 **PS. Powerlevels are bullshit.**

 **PPS. The Sharingan is bullshit.**


	18. Chapter 18

"This is unusual. I can't remember the last time you requested my presence at one of your secret meetings, Hokage-sama." The Fire Daimyō said to Hiruzen, giving him a grateful smile to discuss how uncomfortable he was. The Daimyō of the land of fire was not the confident man who Lorded over most regions. This was in part due to his wife.

Hiruzen pitied the Lord for being married to such a cow of a woman. Even though he was a relatively young man at the age of thirty seven, his face showed nearly as many years as the Hokage's own. He usually entrusted all matters of importance to the ninja or civilian councils, depending on who was effected the most. He was not a man made to lead, he was a listener more than a speaker, and rather easily persuaded. Normally, Hiruzen wouldn't have included him in meetings of a fragile nature, but the Daimyō held great influence, even if he didn't often use it.

"I won't have bothered you if it wasn't for the seriousness of this matter." The Hokage said with a short bow of his head as the Lord took the seat of honor.

It had been one week since the break in. That was the minimum amount of time the Hokage had set for his people to try to gather all the intelligence possible without gathering attention. The sum total of their new information was a resounding zero. With the possible threat of an unknown group poking around the village and targeting the greatest assets to the village's future, the Hokage had to take action.

Who was to be involved in this meeting was a bit of a pickle. It had to have the voices of every major group in the village, and the most important experts on the subject at hand, but at the same time, it had to be as small as possible. Many voices did not make good council, only discord.

The two head members of the major parties within the 'civilian' council had been brought in to represent their own parties. It was really called the Council of Representatives, but as ninja were not permitted on it, they preferred to call it the civilian council. As much as the Hiruzen hated having them their, it was necessary. He could only hope that the presence of their Lord would make them keep their traps shut. The civilian council's power was limited within the village, but it spread across all of the Land of Fire, and a good deal of the ninja's cliental listened to them, making it a bit more obnoxious to deal with. They're actions have caused trouble in the past, with Clans who went against them suddenly finding themselves blacklisted and no civilian village willing to employ them even when they were being constantly raided by bandits.

Next was the Heads of the Uchiha and Hyūga Clan. Being perhaps the most directly involved, they were a given. With Senju's acting Head present in order to have all of the three major Clans in attendance. While the three were not really conflicting, each having sworn off infighting and dedicated themselves to the greater good of the village, they all had their pride issues.

If you got too many of these Clans members together, they would undoubtedly get into an argument over who was the best. It was always a stupid argument, since they all had their own specialties and didn't even take the same types of jobs, but they argued none the less. Hopefully that wouldn't happen with just the three leaders involved.

With Clan security in question, Danzou was also a must, being in charge of the ANBU forces. Another person who the Hokage hoped would not try to take advantage of the situation. The man was loyal to the village to a fault. His twisted view of what constituted the village's good made him a bit of a worry at times.

Nara Shikaku was in attendance. As the Jounin Commander, he was entrusted by all the ninja of the village to speak for them. They believed in his judgment and they felt assured that he had their best interests at heart. If he said that something was for the best, a majority of the Jounin would back him up, which was why the Hokage made sure to talk to him before even suggesting a meeting.

The final two members, Kakashi and Anko, were both there to act as specialists of sorts.

"Since everyone seems to be here we can began, starting with bringing those who are unaware of the true nature of current events up to speed." Hiruzen said, giving Nara Shikaku a small nod to begin explaining.

"As you all know, nine days ago after the signing of a peace treaty, a few members of Kumo reportedly went rogue, kidnapped the heiresses to the Hyūga Clan and tried to make a break for it. However, the events are not as recorded in the official records." Shikaku said calmly. "Ena Kuroshi, a civilian child, age five and eight months, and a close friend of the kidnapped girls, was the first to give pursuit. During the course of the conflict, he downed four Chunin, and two Jounin, as well as held off an upper tier Jounin until village reinforcements arrived."

The non-ninja's eyes widened in shock. "A child did such a thing? Incredible. Is this the same Ena Kuroshi I've heard about? The black smith boy?" The Fire Daimyō asked.

Shikaku nodded. "Yes, the boy ambushed the Kumo ninja, freeing the White Eyed Witch and the two of them fought back against the kidnappers. As for how it was done, we have reason to suspect that the Ena boy has access to the Path of Asura."

"Is this your idea of some kind of sick joke?" The Confederate Party Leader asked in astonishment. "You expect us to believe at some random orphan boy possess a legendary power?"

"Believe it or not, it seems to be the reality of the situation." Fugaku said, as the Uchiha sat with his arms crossed. "Several dozen ninjas saw what had happened, myself included. Ena-sama's power was very real. My Sharingan was unable to even determine the type of jutsu it was, let alone how to recreate it."

'Ena-sama?' A few eyebrows raised slightly.

While they were forbidden from taking about what had happened with anyone who was not there, it hadn't stopped the witnesses from whispering to each other. The Hokage had caught wind of a few of the things they said. The most common title given was 'the Divine Blacksmith', though he had also heard a few calling the child 'the Wrought Iron Sage'.

"Continuing. Seven days ago, the village's maximum security person was broken into and the surviving members of the Kumo incident had their memories rewritten." Shikaku said, not really bothered by any of the interruptions. "Eye witness reports describe the intruders as being two individuals. One man going by the name Lancer; blue hair, carries a spear, and wears a scratched out symbol of Kiri. The second a woman called Rider; dark purple hair, alluring figure, wears a scratched out Kumo headband that covered her eyes. That is all the information that we have for sure on them. As far as our records go these people don't exist."

"My ANBU have searched high and low, but have found nothing of these two. Given the ease in which they undid the various traps and barriers around the prison, I would suspect that they picked the brains of one of our officers. However, even if they did, we would have no way of knowing. They would have simply erased the memory of it." Danzou added his own two cents.

The Fire Daimyō looked visibly disturbed by this news. "Wh...what did they want?"

"To be blunt, my Lord, we have no idea." The Hokage admitted. "Right now we can only make guesses, and the only guess that makes sense is that they have been watching Ena Kuroshi all along and are trying to limit the number of individuals that know about his existence and the presence of the Path of Asura. It is entirely possible that they are still inside of the village, waiting to try to make contact with the boy. Persuade him to join them, perhaps."

"The Path of Asura might not be the only target. Uzumaki Naruto, the current host body of the Nine Tails lives in the same residence. The infiltrators could have been after the Nine Tails and stumbled upon Ena-kun by happenstance." Shikaku said, nodding along. "The Nine Tails' Jinchūriki and the Path of Asura are two of the village's greatest assets for the foreseeable future. We can't take a risk that they might be placed in any sort of danger. That said, security is going to be a tall to impossible order. Because of the nature of the woman's manipulation skills, the fact that Kumo never reported a missing nin of her nature and the way she covered her eyes, we believe that she is in possession of a stolen pair of Mangekyō Sharingan."

"What!?" Fugaku said, his eyes widening at the suggestion.

"Kakaski." Hiruzen said, nodding towards the young man.

Kakashi nodded and pulled up his headband to reveal his Sharingan eye. The dark red eye with the three domoe marks twisted into another shape, one resembling a pinwheel. The change only lasted for a short time before Kakashi gave a sigh and quickly covered the eye again.

"When you aren't the true owner of the Sharingan, it takes a lot out of you to use any of its abilities. Mangekyō Sharingan requires even more. If I start from fresh, I might be able to preform a single jutsu that utilizes it before being too drained to walk. This woman would have had to have used it three times at the very least and was still walking just fine. If she was ranked, she would definitely be an S-rank missing nin based on Chakra levels alone." Kakashi said after the short demonstration.

"Equipped with a Mangekyō Sharingan, most of our usually methods will be useless. And she isn't alone. Her friend is most likely a Samurai, meaning complex jutsu will be useless in his presence. He'd cut down all but our most experienced ninja before they could reach the second hand sign." Hiruzen said, looking over the group. "So we need to go over our options."

"I'd suggest we move both of them into ANBU custody." Danzou said immediately. "Keep them in the secret training sites. No one would be able to get near them without our knowledge."

Hiruzen nodded a bit. There was some sense it that. "We will keep the option open. However, you will need to take into account that Hikaru and by extention Hinata will also be needing protection."

"Why would the Hyūga's heiress be involved?" The Senju elder asked. The old woman looked much younger than her real age of just shy of a hundred and ten, but she still showed signs of decay.

Hiruzen looked to Hiashi who grunted a bit before replying to the question. "None of this leaves this room, got it." He started. "Through our eyes, my Clan has identified a... trait within Kuroshi-kun. I believe it is this trait that connects him to the Path of Asura."

"What does this have to do with your daughter?" The Senju elder asked again.

Hiashi didn't answer. "Let me guess, Hikaru has the same trait?" Shikaku said, raising an eyebrow. The Hyūga Head only nodded. "So the mystery of the White Eyed Witch's unbelievable talent is revealed. And if the missing nin had managed to spot the Ena boy, then there's no reason why they shouldn't have noticed Hikaru as well. How troublesome. I suppose that means that she would have to go with them as well, and she is so attached to her little sister that you wouldn't be able to keep them apart." The Jounin Commander shook his head.

"With the Mangekyō Sharingan in play, it is best to keep them in a location where they will be separated from other people. Simply removing them from the village is an option, but not a good one. We would have no way to know whether or not they were followed, and the reinforcements we could employ would be weakened." Shikaku said, listing off a few options. "Placing them in either the Hyūga or Uchiha complexes would be a good option. Both are separated from the main village and possess heightened senses. As such we can keep a much closer eye on who is sneaking around the kids. As Danzou said, we can isolate them in order to keep them safe. Besides that, I'm not seeing too many options."

"Excuse me, but why is my Clan not considered?" The Senju elder asked hotly. "Our barriers are the strongest in the village. Surely that should count for something."

"Yeah, it counts for something, but not a heck of a lot." Shikaku said, rolling his eyes. "In case you forgot, your Clan set up those same barriers over the prison. The two infiltrators made it through all of them like they were nothing. You're also located smack down in the middle of the entire village. None of your fancy jutsu would do you any damn good against a Samurai. Maybe if Tsunade-sama was still around we would talk, but as is, you aren't a good option." The Senju elder looked as though she was slapped in the face.

"So the chooses are returning the children to Hyūga, sending them to the Uchihas, or entrusting them to the ANBU." The Federal Party Leader said, scratching at his chin. His face didn't have any kind of tell, but history told everyone that the man wasn't happy.

"LIKE HELL!" The civilian's jumped as Anko smashed a hand down on the table. "If you want to take my little monsters, you'll have to do it over my dead body! They aren't tools you can just move around, they're kids! They've already been traumatized enough by the kidnapping and you want to intrust them to the ANBU or Uchiha!"

"Anko." The Hokage warned, but she didn't listen.

"Hinata hasn't left the house for days without both Hikaru and Kuroshi with her! She spends most of the time in her room and has panic attacks every time someone turns off the lights! Hikaru hides it better, but her sleeping patterns have changed and she cried into Kuroshi's shoulder when she thought that the two of them were alone! It's so bad that they ran away from home in order to help themselves feel safe!" Anko shouted as she glared at Danzou and Fugaku. Hiashi flinched at the description of his daughters state. "You want to put them in the care of Danzou! Do you have any clue what the ANBU base is like! The kind of things they do to the people who train there!"

Danzou didn't react, though the ninja were glad they wasn't the ones who had to say it. You couldn't trust Danzou with children. The man would beat the emotions and humanity out of them if given half the chance.

"And what about Itachi-kun! Fugaku, have you actually seen your own son's face!? He's only ten but he's so messed up that he looks older than you do! You traumatized your own son in order to speed up the rate his Sharingan awakened! You power hungry bastard!" Anko said, making the Uchiha visibly pale a little.

"Who... told you that?" Fugaku asked in shock.

Anko opened her mouth, but then shut it, turning her eyes away. To all the ninja at the table, it was a clear enough answer. Orochimaru had been the one to make the connection between mental stress and the power of the Sharingan.

"Doesn't matter. The point is that you can't be trusted to be responsible for my little monsters." Anko hissed at the men.

There was a slight awkward silence after her declaration. "Wow, low blows all around." Kakashi mumbled. "That was a bit uncalled for."

"No... I deceive that." Fugaku said looking down. "Itachi... I didn't... It wasn't my intention to..." Everyone at the table was surprised to see the usually calm Head of the Uchiha acting so guilt ridden. "I only wished to prepare him for the world, not hurt him."

"I'm sorry, but... who is this... young woman who speaks... so openly?" The Fire Daimyō asked, trying to find the right words.

"Apologies, Daimyō-sama. She is a former student of a former student of mine. I entrusted her with watching over the children a year ago and she has grown rather attached to them. I brought her here so that she could give you all an accurate understanding of the children's temperament and behavior." The Hokage said, not really that embarrassed by Anko's actions.

"I see! Then please, share with us. I have to admit to being curious as to how children who are born with legendary abilities would act." The Fire Daimyō said, a smile spreading across his face. The others also seemed rather interested in knowing.

"You want to know about them? Fine. Ena Kuroshi prefers to go by the name Shirou. It's the nickname he got from Hikaru by taking the sounds of his name and reversing them; Ku-ro-shi, Shi-rou-kun. He's not shy or quiet, but he is rather socially awkward. He will play with other children if forced to, but its pretty clear he doesn't really enjoy it. He prefers cooking, cleaning, gardening and working in his forge. He says it helps him clear his mind. This isn't to be confused with him being self centered or pigheadedness. If anything, he has a bit of low a self-esteem issue and needs to learn how to tell people no when they ask for help. He acts a bit like a house wife. He's pretty smart on a number of subjects, but he doesn't really understand how to deal with people. Whenever someone asks him a question about why he chooses to do something, he just stares at them with this dumb look on his face."

Only the Hokage and Hiashi seemed unsurprised by the description of the boy who wielded a legendary power. They just nodded knowingly. They had seen Shirou on enough occasions to know what he was like.

"Hyūga Hikaru is a spoiled little princess, though she's more spoiled by Shirou then by anyone in her Clan. She has the boy completely whipped and he will do whatever she tells him to. He started calling her Rin and she took a liking to the name. She's greedy for information and will take it from any source she can get it from. While she is more willing than Shirou to play with other children, when she plays it is always by her rules, and she is so good at manipulating them that the others often don't even realize that is the case. She spends most of her time either reading about jutsu or inventing her own. The thing she cares about most in the world is her little sister. The only person she really trusts completely is Shirou and Shirou only really trusts her. Though she isn't above using her intelligence to tease him, or anyone else. She's actually rather playful in that way. She only acts out when people try to assert authority over her, because she believes that she knows best in the way all children do. She just has the brains and power to back up her words."

A small smile threatened to cross Hiashi's face at the description of his oldest daughter. The others had only heard the rumors of the uncontrollable heiress and her violent tendencies.

"Uzumaki Naruto has clear signs of abandonment issues. He's always acting out and causing trouble in order to try to get attention, though he makes sure never to cause trouble for Shirou or Rin out of gratitude from taking him in after he was thrown out of the orphanage at the age of three. He constantly goes to the park in order to try to play with anyone who would be willing to be around him and has a small group of friends there who enjoy his antics. He's rather thick and has an extremely short attention span. He's also easy to tease and over confident, telling anyone who will listen that he is going to be the next Hokage. He has a bit of a problem with adults, mostly because they treat him like crap because of something that isn't his fault at all. And why do they do this? If I recall it has something to do with a bunch of fear mongering politicians taking advantage of people's misconceptions."

It was the civilian council member's turn to receive the company's glares. However, true to the style of politicians, they felt no guilt at all for how their actions have effected the innocent child.

"You might see them as just tools that possess unbelievable power, but they are still kids. They need love and guidance. To have fun and make friends. I won't let you strip that away from them." Anko concluded with the kind of determined air that only a woman looking out for her children could produce.

"I see. So you're objection stems not from the idea of moving the children, but in placing them in the care of people who you do not believe have their best intentions at heart, correct?" The Fire Daimyō asked the girl.

"That's right, Daimyō-sama." Anko said, taking a few deep breaths after hear rant.

"Then how about a compromise?" The Fire Daimyō said. The politician's practically hissed at the word, like vampires in strong sunlight. "We will move the children to a new location to be watched, but you will go with them and remain in charge of their wellbeing. Would that be acceptable?"

Sometime, the Hokage loved that man. Maybe living with his wife had trained him how to use this legendary power called 'compromise', it would explain how he managed to survive in a relationship with that horrible woman for so long.

"I suppose... but they aren't going to the ANBU. They can decide that for themselves later in their lives." Anko said, crossing her arms in defiance.

"If it was a year ago, I would have insisted that my own Clan stand guard over them, but this last year has brought things to my attention. I am not so sure of my own ability to protect the children. Hikaru-chan and Shirou-kun have found a way to avoid our eyes completely, and if they can, who else could do the same?" Hiashi said, giving his excuse. The Hokage wasn't fooled. It was really his Clan's division between those who wished to see the Clan change and supported little Hikaru, and those who believed in the old ways and backed the Clan Elder.

Deep down, Hiashi suspected that his own father might have had a hand in his daughters' kidnapping. A horrifying thought, but one that he could neither prove or disprove as the only person who would have been able to conform or dissuade his suspicions killed himself in the name of fate. The man had been in the Elder's pocket for years and had been placed in position to strike by the Elder. The connection was all too clear to anyone who looked.

"Then the only logical option remaining is the Uchiha Clan. What do you say Fugaku-san, willing to put the kids up?" Shikaku asked the Uchiha head.

"We will need to arrange the details, but I foresee no problems." Fugaku said with a short nod. No clan in the village would have said anything else. Improving relations with the Hyūga heiresses, and forming a connection with Kuroshi, a skilled blacksmith and one of the village's future powerhouses. They might not have been too thrilled at having Naruto along, but it would be a small price to pay, so long as the demon didn't get out. Even then, the Uchiha were one of the few clans that were well equip to deal with such a thing.

"Hold on just a moment!" The Confederate Party Leader said angrily. "You can't honestly be planning to place that demon child in the hands of the Uchiha!"

"It would almost certainly lead to another event like four years ago." The Federal Party Leader agreed. "Was it not because of them that we have to put up with that monster in the first place?"

The two civilian leaders were actually in agreement. Something that rarely happened. It was an problem that had been getting worse over the last four years. With the disaster that was the Demon Fox running wild and the death of the Fourth Hokage, people wanted someone to blame. In the end, the people they blamed were the Uchiha. Claims that the Uchiha did not provide any assistance against the demon became louder and louder and civilian actions against them became common until they were driven out of the main part of the village.

To his credit, Fugaku didn't react to the slander against him. Then again, he hardly needed to. The civilian's and the Fire Daimyō all paled as a wave of killing intent flooded the room.

"Call Naruto-kun that in my presence again, and just see what happens." The Hokage said. The old man seemed to inflate into being the size of a giant as the lights in the room shifted uneasily. The table top trembled a little as the man's presence grew. A few moments later, the feeling died away.

"Hokage-sama, I thought I requested of you not to do that while I am here." The Fire Daimyō said, wiping some sweat from his brow.

"Forgive me Daimyō-sama, but Minato-kun and Kushina-chan wished for their son to be seen as a hero. Yet every time I turn around I see someone else looking down on the sacrifice they made for the village by harming their son." The Hokage said, glaring at the two civilian leaders who had sunk into their seats. He closed his eyes and gave a sigh of disgust. "Sooner or later, we will need the help of the Sharingan in order to keep Naruto-kun safe. As time passes, the demon gets stronger. In reality, we should have placed him in the Uchiha's care a long time ago."

In reality, the Hokage wanted Naruto to learn control himself, rather than haven't to be watched. But this would require him to undergo a Sage's training to learn how to balance the good and bad chi and separate himself from the negative energy. Unfortunately, his good for nothing pervert of a student was off chasing shadows. Jiraiya had taken the deaths of Minato and Kushina hardest of all and had left to hunt down the reason behind the Nine Tails incident. Hiruzen just wished that his stupid former student would return to help take care of the boy that was left behind.

The Hokage leaned back in his seat and stared up at the ceiling. "We all live in this village. It is through our combined efforts that we try to secure our futures. Petty squabbling and finger pointing will do us no good. It is best to simply forgive and forget, move forward towards a common goal. Is that not the principles that the village was built upon?"

"Foolish idealism." Danzou mumbled into the silence.

"All idealism is foolish. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for it." Hiruzen countered. "Regardless your personal feeling about the Uchiha, we cannot leave the children open to these missing nin. We will approach them about this subject immediately. I will trust everyone to try to remove any obstacles while using the most discretion possible. With your permission, Daimyō-sama."

"Of course." The Fire Daimyō said with a nod. The two civilian council members were forced to nod in agreement to their Lord.

* * *

Rin could do nothing but laugh. The Hokage had came and explained to her and Shirou the 'situation' with the 'mysterious intruders' and had requested that they agree to move.

She was having a hard time deciding which part was the funniest. One of the top contenders was when they had tried to be understanding about Shirou's 'attachment' to his family home only to have Shirou blink in confusion and try to figure out what they meant by that.

In the end, Rin had gone and talked them into giving Rin and Shirou pretty much free reign in their new home, and made the people agree that they wouldn't move until Rin herself set up all the barriers she wanted. There was no really point in these demands, she just made them because she felt like it. She would have gone anyways of course, it was just too perfect for her.

"I can't believe that thought 'Lancer' and 'Rider' are a part of a secret organization that are spying on us." Shirou said with a sigh. He had been made to stretch his limited poker face skills to their limit throughout the conversation. "It's going to be such a pain to set up a new workshop."

"Doesn't matter. It will be worth it. I've been intested in the Sharingan for a while now." Rin admitted with a shrug, kicking out her legs as she sat at the dinner table late at night drinking some of Shirou's tea.

"Why's that? I suppose they are handy enough for someone who doesn't have a strong grasp of Thaumaturgy, but any Jutsu simple enough to be copied by them you could just hypothesis the nature of and copy it that way. They can preform Genjutsu, but not a powerful enough one to catch your interest." Shirou said, not really getting why Rin was so interested in the eyes. "Compared to some of the things we've seen, they aren't anything special, so what's with the interest?"

"My interest revolves around the evolved form, the Mangekyō Sharingan." Rin said with a smile. "Tell me Shirou, do you know what Mangekyō Sharingan means?"

Shirou closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. "Hm... It's Chinese... Something mimic... spindle eye?" Shirou guessed, giving Rin an apologetic look. Chinese was not his best language.

"Kaleidoscope Copy Wheel Eye." Rin said. She was pleased as a look of shock passed over Shirou's face.

"...You're shitting me..." Shirou said, trying to wrap his mind around it.

"These are stories in my family's records of in the past, when the eyes have developed, them holding the power to open up gateways between this world and a realm they call the 'Kamui's Dimension'. If it really is a different version of the second true magic, that means that the Uchiha have a method of touching the Root." Rin gave him a huge smile. "Which is why we are going to take a look around."

"No wonder you're so existed." Shirou said, rolling his eyes. "After all this, you are still looking for the Root."

"Of course, and someday, I will find it." Rin said, giggling a bit in a manner that made Shirou worried.

"Why do I have the feeling this is going to blow up in our faces?"

* * *

 **Some people disagreed with Shirou and Rin getting involved because they didn't think I could make their involvement make sense. So I wrote this up to show that I could indeed make it make sense for Shirou and Rin to be around.**

 **I'm going to put up a poll over whether or not to keep this and have a five year time skip to when the Uchiha incident happens, or to take it down and have a seven year time skip to when Shirou and Rin are about to graduate from the Academy.**

 **I never really bought that the Third Hokage was involved in the Uchiha incident. He strikes me as to much of an idealist to skip trying to work things out and go straight to genocide. He couldn't even bring himself to kill O** **rochimaru the first time around and he's supposed to get people to murder defenseless innocent babies in their cribs?**


	19. Chapter 19

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

Rin moaned as the obnoxious sound filled the early morning. She blindly batted at the horrible alarm clock, trying to silence it, finding it to be just out of her reach.

"Rin-nee-san, turn it off..." Hanabi whimpered, pushing her pillow over her head to try to block out the noise.

"I'm tryin..." Rin mumbled weakly, but she still couldn't reach. "Oh screw it." She fired a curse, silencing the alarm clock as it was blasted off the table and fell to the ground in pieces. With order restored, she rolled back over and wrapped her arms around her youngest sister, trying to get back to sleep.

Unfortunately, a knock came at the door a moment later. "Rin, Hanabi-chan, you need to get up. Breakfast will be ready in a few and you don't want it to get cold." Shirou's voice came in through the door. Both sisters gave out sighs of frustration before sitting up in their bed, grudgingly preparing to face a new day.

Though the house provided by the Uchiha had plenty of rooms, the three Hyūga sisters all shared a single room and a single large bed. Hinata had woken up earlier and left without waking her sisters up, having taken the habit of trying to learn cooking from Shirou in the mornings, but both Rin and Hanabi were not so good in the early hours.

It was shortly after Hanabi was born that their mother became ill. That was when Rin was once again reminded of the limitations of her abilities. She had never thought that something as simple as a bacterial infection would have been the thing to take her new mother away from her, but that day she had discovered that just like how bacteria had evolved to resist antibiotics, they also evolved to resist mystic forms of healing. Over use of Medical Ninjutsu had caused the creation of illnesses that could not be fought with simple mystics.

If she had even considered that as a possibility, or had more time to prepare...

Immediately following her death, Rin took Hanabi from the Hyūga complex. Seeing the tears in her eyes, none dared to even try to stop her in her distressed state. She didn't go to school for that first year, neither did Shirou. They both decided to just start a year later so that they could focus on taking care of baby Hanabi. Besides, Rin didn't want to leave Hinata or Naruto alone either. So when Hinata and Naruto entered the Academy, Rin and Shirou skipped into the second year. Again, no one tried to stop them.

It had been a little over four and a half years since they had moved into the Uchiha grounds. The Uchiha looked at Rin with a bit of resentment, in part do to the fact that there was an entire block in the middle of their territory that they couldn't enter because of the barriers she set up, they grudgingly accepted her existence there, even if they didn't paid her all the respects due to her as an heiress of a high ranking family. They hardly even noticed quiet little Hinata, and they didn't treat Naruto any differently than he was treated back at the village, meaning it seemed like half the people actively had a problem the with possessed child while most of the other half just wanted him to leave them alone.

Shirou on the other hand they looked at as if they expected to see holy light shining out of his butt whenever he bent over. There was hardly anyone among the Uchiha who didn't refer to Shirou as Ena-sama and they always seemed a few moments away from bowing down a kissing his feet. It was something that disturbed Shirou, and that Rin found very amusing. They honestly thought he was somehow divine.

Rin and Hanabi got dressed and lazily made their way towards the kitchen.

If any of the people in their Clan hoped that Hanabi would be the one that tried to stick more to the old ways, then they were sorely disappointed. The youngest sister practically worshipped her older siblings, and was not raised with any of the Clan's old traditions in mind, save for the use of the Gentle Fist. She dressed in rather casual clothes, rather remnant of civilian garments rather than any of the Hyūga's traditional attire.

That morning she was dressed in a simple pink blouse with the Land of Fire symbol on the back and a light blue skirt. Her long hair was more of their father's brown then the darker raven of their mother, and it was so long that even when tied it still reached her waist.

"Good morning, Onee-san, Hanabi-chan." Hinata said from over by the stove where she stood with Shirou as the boy instructed her on cooking.

"Morning Hinata-nee-san." Hanabi said as she sat down at her normal seat at the table where there was already a cup of hot chocolate waiting for her.

Rin also took her seat and started to drink from her cup of coffee. "Not bad, could use a little more cream." She said, leaning back in her chair and giving a short yawn.

"If there was any more cream in it, it would be more cream that coffee." Shirou said as he showed Hinata how to add the drippings from the grilled fish into the eggs without mixing in any of the scales and lower the flame to give the mix time to soak up the flavor. Rin pouted at his back before going back to her coffee, trying to ignore Anko's snickers. "Morning, you two."

Shirou's appearance hadn't changed too much in the last few years, other than his hair fading completely to white. He wasn't short, but he wasn't all that tall yet. He would still have a large growth spurt ahead of him. Rin had to cherish the time she had when they were about the same size before he turned into a giant, like she was almost certain he would.

"Morning Shirou-nii-sensei." The four year old girl said, using her traditional term of address for the boy. She had been calling him that ever since he had become the one to start teaching her Taijutsu at the age of three. It wasn't really a proper way of addressing someone, but Rin and Anko thought it was too cute and refused to let anyone correct her. Shirou was just glad she wasn't still calling him Okaa-san like she did when she was two. That had been hard to explain to Hiashi when the father came to visit.

Rin and Anko engaged in some light chatter while Shirou and Hinata set out food for everyone. It was just an ordinary morning for them, with only a single element missing. "Has anyone seen Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked, looking towards Naruto's empty seat.

"The Little Fox ran off earlier this morning with Mutt Face and Chubby to go vandalize the flower shop." Anko informed them as she kept eating.

"Why?" Shirou asked, looking to the unconcerned 'adult'.

"Because Blondie's daughter and her friends have been getting too pig headed and they are aiming to get some revenge." Anko explained.

"I meant, why didn't you stop them?" Shirou said, rephrasing his question.

Anko blinked as if confused. "And why would I do that?"

Rin chuckled. "Anko-nee, you are a horrible sensei."

"I have no idea what you are talking about! I'm the best sensei ever!" Anko said, stabbing a piece of toast with her fork and waving it at Rin. "This is going to be a valuable lesson for the lot of them!"

"What lesson is that?" Hanabi asked through a mouthful of eggs.

"The importance of recon, careful planning, evaluating your target, and most importantly, preparing yourself for the retaliation." Anko said, a very snake like smile spreading across her face as she bit a large chunk out of her toast. "This is a lesson they are about to learn the hard way. The Yamanaka women are very defensive of that flower shop, and regardless of how prim and proper they look and act, those roses have their thorns."

"Ah, I see. You aren't a horrible sensei, you're just evil." Rin nodded in approval as Hanabi wordlessly shivered in agreement.

"Some of the best learned lessons need to be experienced for one's self." Shirou said, shaking his head in disappointment.

"I hope they don't get hurt too badly." Hinata said, praying for the safety of her friends.

* * *

They dropped Hanabi off at one of the Uchiha's house on their way to school. She was a little young to be starting herself, and they didn't want to leave her at home alone like they would have with Shirou. Luckily, there was a woman just a few houses down who had a son the same age as her and she didn't mind watching the girl while everyone was at school.

The way to school was a rather long walk, since the Uchiha were located outside of the main village, but the path was well worn and they were used to walking it. Anko ran on ahead, needing some time to prepare for her classes.

While both the Uchiha and the Hyūga lived outside of the village, it wasn't really as willing when it came to the Uchiha. It wasn't hard for Shirou and Rin to see how bitter the Uchiha elders were about having been driven out of the village that they had helped to set up by the very civilians who they had dedicated their lives to protecting.

Bitter probably wasn't a strong enough word for it. At times they could be heard shouting about it whenever they got drunk enough. Over a hundred people all driven out of their homes and forced to live in a gated community. It was enough to make anyone angry.

It was during these long walks towards the main village that they usually bumped into a few of the other children from the Uchiha Clan that went to the ninja academy. "Morning, Itachi, Sasuke-kun." Shirou said, as they came across the two brothers. They often spotted each other along the road.

Sasuke was the same age as Hinata and Naruto, making him in the grade just under Rin and Shirou, while Itachi had long since left the academy. Even so, the older brother was often seen taking his younger to school when he could.

The two of them were a bit of a contrast. While they both had the black hair and eyes that characterized the Uchiha, Sasuke looked his youthful nine years old with innocent eyes and an energetic smile, while Itachi's face looked a bit worn far beyond his fifteen years, even though he tried to smile.

Itachi was considered a genius when he became a Gennin at the age of seven and now at the age of fifteen he was part of the ANBU. It was a very impressive feat. Though Shirou would admit to having never actually seen Itachi in action, and his blade didn't tell him much about the boy, as it was more of a side arm in the young man's combat style rather than the primary tool.

Still he had talked to the Uchiha boy on often enough and they got along pretty well. Despite being ANBU, Itachi was a believer that large scale conflict was something to be avoided, regardless what village would benefit or be hurt. Shirou shared with him some of his own ideals. He liked the Uchiha enough to make a sword for him, even though he hadn't for most of the others who had asked.

"Good morning!" Sasuke shouted as he ran up to join them.

"Morning, Shirou." Itachi said with a short nod of the head.

"Where Naruto? He hasn't decided to drop out has he?" Sasuke said looking around for the hyperactive blond.

"Naruto-kun went on ahead to meet up with Kiba-kun and Chōji-kun." Hinata said, trying to defend Naruto in his absence.

"Really? What are those guys doing? Causing trouble?" Sasuke said, crossing his arms.

"Play nice." Itachi said, poking his brother in the forehead.

"He isn't exactly wrong." Rin said with a short sigh.

Sasuke and Naruto had something resembling a friendly rivalry. It was all really childish.

It started when the two of them got into an argument they had before they ever even got to school about who was better, Shirou or Itachi, and they had been competing with each other ever since. Something that was rather sad for Naruto.

Sasuke might not have been at the level of his older brother, but he was still a genius and had several advantages given to a son of the Clan Head, were as Naruto...

Rin and Shirou had tried, they really did. The problem simply was that Naruto was a nine year old with ADHD. He couldn't understand complex theories or how to weave his chakra into something usable. No matter how many times Rin tried to explain it to him, his just zoned out half way through and forgot it all later. So while he had tons of Chakra, his Jutsu were rather shitty.

Shirou had attempted to teach him more about combat to make up for it. Naruto was stronger and faster than his peers, and his body quickly adapted to the stances and forms that were taught to him, but he lacked the patience needed to find openings and plan ahead. So in the end, his fighting style was only a little better than the other students. Him an Sasuke were around on the same level, but were Sasuke would continue to improve, Naruto would fall behind if he couldn't overcome his handycap.

ADHD was normally caused by the frontal lobe of a child's brain developing slower than normal, symptoms include a short attention span, a quickness to anger, and an inability to properly make connections between objects, for example not being able to tell the difference between a cat and a dog because both have four legs, a tail and fur.

This could have been brought on by the malnutrition he suffered in his early life, or perhaps head injures from abuse, or maybe the seal itself caused it. Bad genetics could also be an issue. Luckily it was also a condition that tended to get better as they grew older and the frontal lobe continued to develop. Though some of the bad habits he developed as a child would more than likely stick with him for life.

To a Magus, ADHD was practically the kiss of death. Good focus and a comprehension of form was too important. Any mistake made during a complex spell could mean the death of the caster, and Jutsu were the same way. So any risky forms of energy control needed to be kept away from Naruto until he was more ready to learn. They would just have to hope he doesn't get killed or suffer greater brain damage before then.

If it didn't get better, they would have to take drastic measures. They couldn't wait around for ever for Naruto to smarten up, but magecraft to rearrange brain tissue was something that even Rin didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole if she could help it.

Regardless, in most fields, Sasuke wiped the floor with Naruto. This itself was countered by Hinata out performing them both, much to their embarrassment. So in the contest between Shirou and Itachi, Rin was the winner.

Sasuke was able to learn a C rank Jutsu and gained some control over the Fire Chakra Tranformation at the age of nine, an impressive feat. Hinata had already learned twenty C rank Jutsu and two B rank Jutsu as well as the healing Mystic Hands. She mastered Water Chakra Transformation and some control over Earth from her older sister's teachings.

While Sasuke's family Taijutsu style was pretty good, it was heavily reliant on the information that came from the Sharingan eyes, which Sasuke didn't have yet, and wasn't up to the standards of the Gentle Fist. Sasuke had decent skills of several types of weapons but that couldn't compare to what Shirou had taught Hinata about weapon use.

The shy little girl was top of her class in just about everything, though she didn't boast about it.

Without Naruto there, the walk was a lot quieter. Sasuke still talked, trying to fill the void, but mostly it was just Rin and Itachi, both trying to question the other and both dodging the other's questions. The two of them had been trying to uncover the secrets of the other since they had first set eyes on each other. The fact that Rin was unable to really get her hands on any Sharingan was annoying her to no end, and the way she used magecraft that they Sharingan couldn't analyze was driving the Uchiha crazy. Each unwilling to give any real information, but each showing off whenever the other could see in order to taunt them.

The Academy was near the back of the village, by the cliff face. This was for tactical reasons. The cliff was filled with passage ways that could be used in case of an attack on the village and the children were always first priority for getting to safety.

So it wasn't long after moving through the inner gate that they heard the sound of laughter and a small dog's yipping coming from the school. With their Byakugan eyes, Rin and Hinata were the first to know what was going on. "Oh no." Hinata said, before running ahead of the rest of the group, clearly worried. Rin on the other hand was trying to hide her laughter.

People were gathered around the large tree that grew in front of the school, the one that never seemed to die no matter how many years went by without it having a single leaf on it. Shirou suspected that it wasn't a natural tree, but Rin wouldn't tell him whether or not his guess was right.

Tied up and left to hang from the tree's branches like human pinatas were Naruto, Kiba and Chōji. The three boys were covered in bruises and various colors of paint. Kiba's ninja puppy, Akamaru, was running around underneath them, yapping its head off.

"Oh no." Shirou said, covering his eyes in embarrassment.

"It would seem that Anko-sensei was right on the money." Rin said as he little sister threated about getting the boys down without hurting them further.

"We really should get them down." Shirou said.

"Do we have to?" Rin said, tapping her finger against her chin. "They make such colorful pinatas. How about we just get a few sticks instead?" Shirou gave her a look. "Fine, cut the ropes and I'll catch them."

Shirou throw a few traced kunai at the ropes, cutting all three of them at the same time. The boys gave shouts of surprise as they were suddenly falling towards the ground, but before they got there, Rin flicked out her hands and said a few words in old Swedish.

The three boys stopped in mid air, just inches away from the ground, hovering there for a brief moment before dropping the last bit with a soft thud.

"An impressive Jutsu." Itachi said, having watched the whole thing.

Rin turned to the Uchiha. "Yes, and I bet you would just love to know who I do it, wouldn't you, Itachi-kun." Rin said with a wide and playful smile. "Sorry, but that is my little secret. Of course, if you want to tell me all about your Sharingan, then I could tell you."

The two of them looked into each other's eyes, Rin's playful, Itachi's annoyed. The Sharingan started to appear in his eyes, the three tomoe circling slowly. Rin only giggled.

"Do you honestly think that a Genjutsu would work, Itachi-kun?" She said, taunting the boy as she easily waved off his attempts to enter her mind. Of course Itachi hadn't expected it to work. It had only been to get her to drop her guard.

Two fingers came up, bumping her against the forehead, surprising her and knocking her backwards to fall on her butt. "Not today, Rin-chan." He said with a slight smirk before appearing to disappear into a cloud of crows.

"Why you!?" Rin said, turning on her Byakugan and searching the boy out. She formed a few handsigns and the surrounding kids jumped as a bolt of lightning jumped from her outstretched hand, smashing into a far away roof top. It was too far away for any of them to see with normal eyes, but based on Rin's body language and still hot temper, she had missed the shot. "I'll get you back for that, Itachi-kun. I'll get you."

Meanwhile, Shirou and Hinata were tending to the tied up boys, cutting them free and seeing to their wounds. Hinata was looking after Naruto and Kiba, each of whom were claiming that it was no big deal and trying to put on a strong front in front of the girl as she used her Mystic Hands to heal their wounds. Shirou was taking care of Chōji who wasn't trying to hide how much distress he was in.

The Mystic Hands was a useful skill, and fairly simple if one hand a detailed understanding of the human body and enough Chakra. Hinata mastered it quickly when Rin started to teach it to her. It was basically the polar opposite of the Gentle Fist technique, using one's own chakra to mend and open up Chakra flows rather than damage and close them. It took more Chakra to preform, but through the Mystic Hands, Hinata finally got used to using her Gentle Fist.

Shirou didn't have the advantage of seeing exactly where the Chakra flows were, but with Structural Analysis, he could fine them none the less. The Mystic Hands and Gentle Fist were both techniques that only required the use of basic Yang Chakra and so he could use them even with his rather... glaring flaws.

"Shikamaru was right... girls are scary... We shouldn of gone..." Chōji whimpered as Shirou saw to a rather large lump on his head.

"What motivated you all to try to vandalize the flower shop?" Shirou asked calmly as the boy continued to cry.

"Ino... Ino and her friends has been being mean to Hinata-chan." Chōji said, whipping the tears out of his eyes.

"Ah..." Shirou said, thinking back to a few of the things Anko had told him.

It was fairly common for the girls at the Academy to make friends during their early years, but they always turned on one and other during the later years of school. Friendships dissolving into bitter rivalries. The reason was because of boys. It always seemed to be that way with school girls. The problem stemmed from a bit of a cultural issue as well as something that was a part of tradition.

Girls were brought up being told that strength, talent and influence are everything. That they should look for boys like this and fall in love with them. So all of the girls usually ended up falling in love with the exact same boy in their class, the one who was at the top of the class. In Shirou and Rin's year, it was Neji, and in Hinata and Naruto's it was Sasuke. While they were all in the same class, they were constantly undermining one and other's attempts to get close to the boy, which is why they all had their eyes on the same prize.

It was no secret that they always paired the top boy and top girl together on the same team after graduation. It was the chance to get to be alone with the boy that they had a crush on. They would be on several dozens of missions together throughout their pubescent years, and would have the chance to grow close.

However, with Hinata being trained by people like Shirou and Rin, as well as having her natural advantages, the girls didn't stand much of a chance competing with her for the top girl spot. This led to them all pretty much hating the shy little girl, even though Hinata never did anything to deserve it. It wasn't help by the fact that Hinata was living on the Uchiha compound and therefore had the 'unfair advantage' in the first place.

None of the girls seemed to realize that Hinata had no interest in Sasuke at all. Which came about because Rin had been the one to teach little Hinata about what was important in the world. So rather than chasing after some boy who was strong or from a powerful family, her idea of what made for a good crush was someone who was nice and had a beautiful dream.

It had been one of the things that Rin had said a lot about Shirou as Hinata was growing up. That his dream was beautiful in the way only something that stupid could be. When Hinata asked what Shirou's dream was, Rin had laughed and told her that Shirou wanted to be an 'Ally of Justice'.

Hinata had fallen for Naruto because of the boy's seemingly impossible dream. Rin knew it, Anko knew it, most of the boys in the class knew it, even little Hanabi knew it. But no matter how obvious it was to all of the people who really knew her, the girls at her school didn't seem to notice. Then again, Naruto never seemed to notice, nor did Shirou.

Chōji stopped crying as Shirou patted his head. "Thank you for trying to look out for Hinata-chan. But how about next time you came to me instead and I'll try to help you work it out in a way that won't get you into trouble, deal?" Chōji nodded energetically. "Alright then, you'll be alright, but I can't do anything about the paint. Try to make the best of today anyways, alright?"

"Okay, Shirou-senpai." Chōji said before getting up and trying to get away from the other laughing students, joining Hinata, Naruto, Kiba and Sasuke as they went into class together. Shirou joining an angry Rin to go to their own class.

* * *

 **I'm going to just start putting this at the bottom of every chapter because otherwise people seem to forget about it.**

* * *

 **I remind everyone that not everything I say is canon. I am using various things from Philosophy for the mechanics for Magecraft/Ninjutsu, rather than anything said in canon or on the wiki. Nor is my knowledge of the history or story canon in either Fate or Naruto entirely accurate. Not that I personally care too much. That kind of stuff is like history, and history was always my least favorite subject in school, and a good self contained story can be written without it.**

 **If you wish to suggest changes or additions that you think will improve the story, then feel free, though I maintain the right to disagree with you.**

 **If you have complaints without any suggestions then you can fuck right off, because that's not how criticism is supposed to work.**

 **PS. Powerlevels are bullshit.**

 **PPS. The Sharingan is bullshit.**


	20. Chapter 20

That day started like so many others before it.

No sooner had Shirou opened the door to the classroom did he hear the familiar shout. "Prepare yourself!"

A boy dressed in a white Chinese style top and loose black pants jumped over the first three rows of desk and started to do a spin kick in the air, his long braided ponytail hanging out behind him.

Shirou stepped out of the kick's way, then when the attacker tried to follow up with a back hand, he half parried the attack before grabbing the wrist. Before a whole second had passed, Shirou had the boy on the ground, one arm locked under his knee, while Shirou's held the other hand and pressed his other knee into the boy's shoulder blades, pinning him to the ground.

"Morning, Lee." "Goodmorning, Lee-kun." Shirou and Rin said casually as the boy struggled.

"Mor'ing... Shirou, Hikaru-chan." Rock Lee said from his position on the ground. Shirou released him and let Rock Lee get back to his knees. He punched the ground. "Rats! I lost again!" Then surprising to anyone who was not familiar with Lee, he pushed his legs up into the air and started doing vertical push ups. "If I could not beat Shirou... then I will do fifty vertical push ups before class starts... and if I can't do that, then I will run around the entire village during lunch break." He grunted as he struggled with his self inflicted punishment.

"Very well, we'll leave you to that then." Rin said, patting Lee's leg as she passed, making the boy struggle to maintain his balance until Shirou helped to stabilize him really quickly.

Some members of the class laughed at Lee. "What does he think he's doing?" "Dead Last should just give up. He doesn't have what it takes to be a ninja." "They probably let his father be a ninja out of pity for them." Lee closed his eyes at their words, but didn't stop doing his push ups.

Shirou looked up at them with a disappointed look. "Ignore them Lee, just keep it up. I'm sure you'll show them all one day." Shirou said, giving his bit of encouragement before continuing on.

Rin third row, second from the back and sat down in her usual spot next to the window and popped open her book. She ignored the looks they got. She knew they were there, but she simply chose not to react to them. The peanut gallery never mattered one bit to her... no... not one bit. She didn't care that more than half the girls in her class were staring at Shirou and whispering to each other.

Shirou was oblivious to this fact. Even when Anko had tried to explain to him that girls went for boys who were strong, smart, and would improve their families station, it never registered to him that she could be talking about him. He had assumed that she had meant Neji.

While Neji was definitely a target, he wasn't the only or the biggest one in there year. Shirou might not have even been in the top ten of the class grade wise because of some troubles he had with one of the basic jutsu, but he was still obviously a cut above the rest. He had long since mastered the other jutsu, and was the best in class when it came to weaponry and hand to hand combat. Though he could easily be one of the best in the village in both of those categories. Having an index of over ten thousand different fighting styles made picking up new ones and finding holes in his opponent's a piece of cake for him. So even if he couldn't analyze someone's fist at a glance, he would get their style down after just a few minutes of watching.

Even if Shirou had no real family influence or history within the ninja community, he wasn't poor and his blacksmith skills were something that were well sought after. Not to mention that every single one of them whose parent knew about what happened during the Kumo incident had told them to do whatever it took to catch Shirou's eye. It didn't seem to matter to them one bit that he was already engaged.

Shirou wasn't the only one though. Several of the boy's in the class seemed to have fallen in love with Rin as well, and hated Shirou for his connection to her. Not that any of them were brave or foolish enough to even think of asking Rin out. Shirou may have been easy going, but he was strong, and Rin herself was fairly scary when she wanted to be.

Actually, no one in the class ever seemed to recognize the engagement, with the exception of Anko. She only mentioned it to rub it in the other young boys and girls' faces and to try to see if she could get Shirou or Rin to flush.

"Morning, Neji." Shirou said as Rin's cousin moved up the stairs towards his seat in the row behind them, right behind Rin herself. Neji didn't respond to Shirou, only giving him a slight glare with his featureless eyes as he passed.

"Good morning, Onee-san." Neji said to Rin, giving a slight bow of the head.

"It's good to see you to, Neji-kun." Rin said, rolling her eyes.

Neji had been fairly close to Rin and Hinata as children, when they all played or trained together. He viewed Rin as an older sister, even if she was only older than him by about a week. And even though they didn't all live within the Clan walls anymore, they saw each other a lot.

While he was grateful to Shirou for his involvement in the Kumo incident, he never liked Shirou, mostly because he seemed to have so many secrets with Rin that Neji was not privy to. Rin always saw the jealousy as being rather adorable in the young boy.

So when Rin and Hinata left the family compound, Neji blamed Shirou for it. Few people knew about it, but after it happened, he challenged Shirou to see if he was worthy of being with his Onee-san. It hurt the genius's pride to be so completely and utterly beaten by someone who supposedly had no training in hand to hand combat.

Neji had been forced to acknowledge Shirou's skill. That didn't mean he had to like it.

Rin's smile didn't last as she noticed something different that morning. Neji had a chakra hiding bandage wrapped around his forehead. "Isn't it a little early for you to be getting that? Or were you planning on leaving the village for a trip?" Rin asked her cousin.

"No. It was just a precaution. You know how things have been." Neji said, his arm twitching as he resisted the urge to reach for his forehead.

"Utter foolishness." Rin said, crossing her arms. "That seal is supposed to be a defensive measure against foreign powers, not internal."

"It does not matter. I would never try to take the Clan." Neji said, remaining calm.

Ever since Rin's decorations, the Hyūga Clan had been becoming more and more divided. Hiashi tried his best to control their actions, but with the future that had always been controlled by the Elder now seeming so unknown, things were getting a little out of hand. Opinions within the branch families ranged from completely shedding the Clan's old identity, to taking drastic measures to return things to the norm.

One of the ways of doing so would be to find a different plausible heir to the Clan, preventing Rin from making her changes. Neji's name had been one of the few who could have possibly contended for the title, as he was genetically indistinguishable from being a son of the current Head. Even though the young boy would have never considered fighting against Rin, it still made him a threat to Rin's ascent to being the next head. Therefore, some one who wished to support her pressed for Neji to receive the Caged Bird Seal early, even though Rin herself didn't want any such thing.

"I'll remove it." Rin said shaking her head.

"Onee-san, you don't..."

"I'll remove it!" She said more sharply, giving her cousin a look that told him not to argue. Neji quickly shut up.

"What's got you two so worked up?" Tenten asked as she walked up to them.

"Family matters." Neji said, looking away. It was something that was said in the Village to politely say 'none of your business'.

"Oh, is that so. I'll just leave you to it then." Tenten said before slipping past Rin and to the seat on the opposite side of Shirou. "Hey Kuroshi-kun."

"Morning, Tenten-chan." Shirou replied.

"Hey, can you tell me how you do that trick with the Shuriken where you..." Tenten started to go off asking Shirou about weapons, with the boy giving his best answers.

Rin frowned as the girl gave Shirou a big smile. Tenten had used the 'childhood friend' thing and a common interest in weapons in order to get close to Shirou. Tenten had been trying to compete with Rin ever since she found out that Rin and Shirou were friends. She was one of the few people who still didn't call Shirou Shirou as it was in her eyes a name that Rin gave him and a symbol of possession. The preppie blown haired girl with her twin buns hair style was the number two girl in class. Though it would be decades before she could even think about competing with Rin.

No matter how much Rin told herself that it didn't matter because Shirou only saw Tenten as being a child and wouldn't go for her, it still irked her a bit to see her trying to cling to Shirou from time to time. She annoyed her more than the other girls because she had actually muscled her way into their little group, while the others were kept at bay by a mixture of Rin's intimidation and Shirou's complete inability to tell that they wanted to join the group.

What right did that girl have to come into things? Rin and Shirou had known each other longer than this girl had been alive. Tenten didn't even know the first thing about Shirou and she was trying to fight Rin for him when she didn't have anything more than a school girl's crush.

Having finished his punishment, Rock Lee finally noticed that Neji had entered the room and was about to attack him as well when a large burst of smoke appeared behind the teacher's desk before clearing to show Anko sitting on the desk kicking her legs and grinning at them all.

"Hel-lo there munchkins!" She said chipperly. "Get to your seats so that I can take role, but don't get too comfortable. After a few announcements we'll be doing some actual practice. Hope you didn't eat too big of a breakfast. I'd rather not have to clean up anyone's sick."

Students hurried to their seats before the teacher could get bored of waiting and start throwing kunai at them like she usually did when they didn't move fast enough for her liking. She also had a tendency to get violent if anyone called her 'that crazy snake lady'. Shirou wondered at times if the Tiger had somehow followed them through reincarnation in order to continue to mooch off his cooking.

"Well, looks like no one important is missing, so how about we get this show on the road then. As you all have probably been reminded about a hundred thousand times by your less interesting sensei, your exams are starting up soon. No really pressure, but fair warning, I will laugh at you whether you fail or not." Anko said grinning like a mad woman as she started to juggle three kunai in one hand while continuing to talk. "So today we are going to be practicing your jutsu. Come down when your called and give me the best Clone Jutsu you got."

Rock Lee's head fell down to his desk. "Why did it have to be the clone jutsu..? My transformation might not be good but at least it's something." The usually energetic boy weeped to himself.

"Hey now Lee, don't let it get to you." Shirou said giving him a reassuring look. "Its not the end of the world if one of your jutsu don't seem to turn out quite right."

"Is that what you tell yourself too?" Neji commented off handedly. "I wonder what will happen this time."

"That's not nice Neji-kun! I'm sure that Kuroshi-kun's been practicing hard to get it down right this time!" Tenten said trying to pump Shirou up. Shirou only laughed slightly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"No, the result will be the same as always." Rin said with a short chuckle, getting a glare from Tenten.

"Shirou-chan! You're up!" Anko shouted from the front of the room. Shirou accepted his fate, getting up and moving to the front of the room.

"You should be more supportive. Isn't Kuroshi-kun your friend." Tenten said to Rin. "Kuroshi-kun's really smart. I'm sure he will get this Jutsu down."

"You only say that because you don't understand this Jutsu. Or maybe because you just don't understand Shirou." Rin said shaking her head. "Shirou never does anything wrong. The Jutsu simply does not work with him."

Shirou stood in front of Anko and started to preform his hand signs. Ram. Snake. Tiger. His hand signs were flawless and his chakra control perfect, but still...

There was a pop of smoke and where there should have been a copy of Shirou was a short bronze gladius, its minimalist hilt chipped on one side and the brown leather grip worn down. It fell to the ground were it popped into a cloud of smoke again.

"Ah, that wasn't nearly as flashy as the last sword." Anko said, rather disappointed.

It happened every time. Each and every time Shirou tried to use the basic clone technique, he ended up projecting a empty sword. There wasn't anything Shirou could do about it. He preformed the Jutsu perfectly, it was simply how the jutsu worked that caused it to act strangely for him.

The transformation jutsu and the basic clone jutsu were both forms of projection. Starting points for ninja just like they were starting points for a magus. Each simplified by restricting an element. In the transformation jutsu, the user didn't need to consider the position of the projection, because the position was their own body, coordinates zero zero zero, therefore they didn't have to waste focus on that. As such it was a lot easier than it would be to project another's body into another position.

The restriction on the basic clone jutsu was that it was the users body that was being used. The subconscious mind holder an idea of one's own physical form. The clone jutsu taps into this and uses it in order to create the shapes of the clones.

However, Shirou's subconscious was a rather broken thing. Rather than seeing himself as a human, he spirit viewed itself as a sword, or perhaps, every sword. Every time he tried to use the basic clone jutsu it reached into his Unlimited Blade Works and picked a sword to create an empty copy of.

He could use most other basic Jutsu just fine. It was only the Jutsu that relied on his subconscious to give them form that tripped him up, as his subconscious contained nothing but swords.

* * *

"I hate tests." Naruto grumbled angrily as he ate the lunch Hinata had made for him, picking at it with less energy than usual. "Why can't we just go into the forest and have another practical. Those are at least fun."

Naruto, Hinata and their friends met up with Rin, Shirou, Neji, Tenten and Lee for lunch. All grade levels had there tests around the same time every year, so the younger kids were also in the dumps about the upcoming test.

"You got that right. Who decided that we needed to learn all this math stuff anyways? We're going to be ninja, not... what do you do with math anyways?" Kiba added his own anger to Naruto's.

"It's mostly used in Fuinjutsu and encryption." Shikamaru said with a yawn. "Dull stuff. But it still beats history if you ask me. Reading all those history books is just such a hassle."

"I hate classic literature. Its always so... creepy." Chōji said with a shiver before shoving more food in his mouth. "All that stuff about grown men going after little girls makes me uncomfortable."

"Not too uncomfortable to eat, I see." Shikamaru said with a small smirk.

"It's bad, but not as bad as Shirou-senpai's cooking is good." Chōji said defensively.

"At least you two have good enough grades that you don't have to worry. The dumb blond and me have to pass this stupid thing or they'll hold us back a year." Kiba said pointing a thumb at Naruto. "If that happens my Onee-san will turn me into dog meat."

"Hey! Don't lump me in with you Canine Breath!" Naruto shouted angrily at Kiba.

"What was that Whiskers!?" Kiba shouted back. The two started to get up into each other's faces, preparing to go at it like a fox and a hound.

"Please... don't fight." Hinata said weakly trying to get between the two boys.

Seeing the concerned look on the girl's face, both boys stopped. Naruto glancing away, a bit ashamed of himself for upsetting her, while Kiba flushed and looked down at his feet were his puppy was looking up at him from his food bowl.

Rin giggled to herself at the sight. Kiba had long since had a crush on little Hinata, and was jealous of Naruto for being so close to her. It was funny to watch how things went when the three of them were all in a room together. Especially when Neji was around. The older boy gave the two death glares that quickly caused enough of the blood to drain from Kiba's face to make his flush go away.

If Shirou wasn't good enough for Rin, there was no way in hell that Naruto or Kiba were good enough for Hinata. Anyone who wanted to date her would have to get through him.

A second after their defused fight, Naruto smirked and crossed his arms, puffing out his chest. "Well, unlike you, I don't have to worry about anything." Naruto said. "I'm going to get Rin-san and Shirou-san to help me study. There's no way I could fail."

"Oh? So you're going to finally take your studying seriously? It's too bad that we are going to be too busy tonight to help you." Rin said with a teasing smile.

"Wha!? You're kidding me! Please, Hyūga Hikaru-sama, don't abandon me in my time of need!" Shout Naruto as he bowed to to Rin, his goggles slapping against the ground as he pressed his head against the floor.

"You don't need to bow to her Naruto, she's just messing with you." Shirou said chuckling a little. "We'll help you."

Naruto looked up to Rin with big eyes. "Hm... yes, I suppose we must. Can't have Hinata-chan separated from her little play thing because of a few bad grades."

"Onee-san!" Hinata half squealed, flushing bright red.

"Hey! How come Naruto gets special treatment!" Kiba complained. "I need help too!"

"H...Hikaru-chan..." Rock Lee said, getting up to his feet and blowing low at the waist. "Please consider helping me as well!"

Rin looked over the two and sighed. "You know I used to have a one charity case at a time policy. Now look. Not only do I still have to keep track of Shirou, but now I'm stuck with Naruto-kun and now these two as well." She said, shaking her head. "Oh well, what can you do. I suppose I can help you all if I must."

"You still count me as a charity case?" Shirou said, raising an eyebrow.

"You will always be my charity case. I still remember how hopeless you were when we first met. You really haven't come very far since then, now that I think about it. You're still an idiot." Rin teased Shirou.

"But you've come such a long way. Sometimes I'm half convinced that you actually have a heart." Shirou said, rolling his eyes. "All those years of scolding your childish behavior must have paid off. With a bit more hard work, I might even make you an honest hard working member of society."

"That sounds about as unlikely as me teaching you the meaning of self preservation. Then again, is there even a point when you don't even understand how to die properly. You know that people are supposed to die when they are killed, but when it comes time to actually implement that rule, you always seem to mess up. Immortality through stupidity. Some people would be jealous." Rin switched to English so that the others wouldn't be able to understand.

"You do realize that you died too, right?" Shirou said, also making the switch.

"Then you seem to have been a horrible influence on me."

"Their doing it again." Tenten mumbled to Neji. The white eyed boy didn't respond. He just focused on his tea. The two of them kept going back and forth with none of the others having a clue what was being said. Rin maintained a pleasant smile the whole time, while Shirou kept his own sarcastic expression in check. Finally, Rin must have said something that managed to get underneath Shirou's skin, because the boy twitched and shrank down, his head sinking so low it nearly tunneled into his shoulders.

"What did you say to him?" Hinata asked.

"I told him that if he wanted more free time, we could pass ownership of the kitchen over to you." Rin admitted, seeming proud of her victory. "Anyways? If some many people want to study, then I suppose we can all do it together. Make a bit of a party out of it."

"That sound like a good idea." Chōji said, a dazed look coming over his face.

"You're only saying that because you want some more food." Shikamaru said, taking note of a small line of drool coming out of the corner of his friend's mouth.

Chōji scowled at the lazy boy. "What about you? Are you going to go?"

"Hm... good question." Shikamaru said, looking over at Rin and then looking away again. "Think I'll pass. Too many troublesome women for my liking."

Shikamaru believed that Shirou was the ultimate proof that women ruined the lives of the men who they ensnared. Rin and Anko were both the panicle of his idea of troublesome women. Shirou was always forced to be working and never seemed to just relax. What kind of monsters have a boy his age working? Worst of all, Shirou seemed to have gotten to the point where it was like Stockholm Syndrome, where he actually believed that he enjoyed it.

Shikamaru might have been alright with Hinata, but that was because she didn't try to make anyone do any work. She was more of one of the guys as far as he was concerned.

Tenten was bad, but only as bad as any other girl. She had a long way to go before she could reach Rin or Anko's levels of ruining a man's life.

"So you aren't going to come, Shi-kun?" Rin said, smiling evilly. "Not even if I were to talk to your mother? She's been hoping to get you more involved in your school work."

Shikamaru tensed up at the mention of the Nara Matriarch. Neither Shikamaru or his father ever dared to defy her, and always tread carefully to avoid her wrath. "Troublesome woman." He grumbled angrily as Chōji snickered.

"Troublesome indeed." Shirou said, nodding in agreement. Rin looked like she was taking pride in being called such. "Sorry Shikamaru-kun, but you might as well try to have some fun with it." He looked over to Neji and Tenten. "Do either of you want to join in?"

Neji was quiet as he weighed his options. On one hand, he didn't see the appeal in helping out the younger kids, some of whom he personally wanted to chase away from little Hinata and Hanabi, as they were bad influences. On the other hand, it was a good enough excuse as any to spend some time with his cousins.

Tenten on the other hand was much more excited. "Yes! I mean, I'm sure that I'd be able to help to. I am their senpai after all, and you know that I'm pretty good at this stuff." Shirou was rather confused. The girl was showing signs of both pride and embarrassment. Shirou himself was unfamiliar with the feeling of pride.

Pride was something that made one over confident and got them killed. It was always best to assume that your opponent was stronger than you were. What was the point in being prideful when there were thousands of beings that could brush you off like an annoying bug if they felt too irritated. He made sure to keep the understanding of both his own abilities and the abilities of the people around him as accurate as humanly possible. He was very familiar with embarrassment, but he couldn't recognize any of the usual triggers.

"That's very true. You worked hard to earn that number two girl status of yours." Rin said with a smirk. Tenten scowled at puffed out her cheeks.

"Ouch." Rock Lee said, scooting away from the girls, anticipating some kind of cat fight. Common knowledge was enough to tell him that it was the best to stay away from such things.

Luckily, nothing came of it, as Shirou, lacking most of the most basic human instincts, hadn't noticed the impending girl problem and spoke up a different question, creating a distraction. "Hey, has anyone seen Sasuke? I thought he was going to join us for lunch."

"He was going to, but he ended up getting dragged away by a bunch of fangirls." Naruto said, pointing out off the roof and to a small area at the edge of the school year where a wall of girl bodies and noise could be heard.

"Poor bastard." Shikamaru said, hanging his head and looking as if he was praying for the Uchiha boy.

"Yeah... can I have his lunch?" Chōji said, eyeing the left over bento. Sadly, it disappeared before he could even reach for it. "Hey!?"

"Moved too slow." Anko said from her position up on top of the water tank nearby as she opened up Sasuke's lunch and started to eat it. "So Princess, what'd Ita-chan do this morning to get under your skin? That lightning you throw at him was pretty impressive. Heard from some of the guys that it came so close to him that his hair was standing on end when he got to work this morning,"

"His butt would have been roasted if he hadn't blocked it." Rin grumbled, crossing her arms.

"The two of you are already squabbling. Can't wait to see how sparks fly when you both actually become clan heads. It will take more than Shirou-chan to be a peace keeper at that point." Anko snickered. "Hey, if you are all having a tutoring party, why don't you try inviting him?"

"No way in hell." Rin said, sticking up her nose. "Even if that emo brat doesn't have anything better to do, I still wouldn't want him around."

Shirou had to stop himself from face palming at Rin's description of Itachi. She refused to see herself as being younger than him, or recognize him as being mature for his age. To her, he was a brat.

Shirou felt a tug on his arm and looked over to see Naruto with a confused expression on his face. "Shirou-san, what's an emo?" Naruto asked, some of the other kids also looking curious.

"An emo refers to someone who spends a lot of time thinking about distressing things." Shirou said, trying to do his best to explain to the children.

"Why would they do that?" Naruto asked.

"Thats... hard to explain. Do you remember when Anko-nee took you to that scary movie?" Shirou said, seeing Naruto shiver a bit before nodding. "Well, some people just like that kind of thing. It causes a sort of rush of emotions and people get addicted to the feeling and start to try to put themselves in that mind set in order to feel it."

"So... Itachi-san acts all unhappy because that makes him happy?" Naruto said, trying to piece things together.

"Um... yeah. Close enough." Shirou said. He honestly didn't understand emos beyond the biological reasoning. There was probably some kind of element of consciousness in there somewhere, but the human perspective of the world was something that existed outside of Shirou's understanding. If only it involved more swords.

* * *

 **I'm going to just start putting this at the bottom of every chapter because otherwise people seem to forget about it.**

* * *

 **I remind everyone that not everything I say is canon. I am using various things from Philosophy for the mechanics for Magecraft/Ninjutsu, rather than anything said in canon or on the wiki. Nor is my knowledge of the history or story canon in either Fate or Naruto entirely accurate. Not that I personally care too much. That kind of stuff is like history, and history was always my least favorite subject in school, and a good self contained story can be written without it.**

 **If you wish to suggest changes or additions that you think will improve the story, then feel free, though I maintain the right to disagree with you.**

 **If you have complaints without any suggestions then you can fuck right off, because that's not how criticism is supposed to work.**

 **PS. Powerlevels are bullshit.**

 **PPS. The Sharingan is bullshit.**

 **PPPS. Stop commenting about this thing that is meant only to dissuade annoying comments.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Final tease plus adopt.**

* * *

"Why can't you idiots just go to the library to have your desperate study session?" Sasuke said in mock anger as they all walked towards the Uchiha compound.

"What's your problem!? We live here, so we should be allowed to have our party here if we want!" Naruto counted.

"But its Uchiha land, and every time you four are all together you always cause trouble!" Sasuke said, pointing to Naruto, Chogi, Shikamaru and Kiba.

"If you're talking about the 'running of the bullshit' incident, its not our fault that the fences were so flimsy." Shikamaru said indignantly.

"Or that all of the cows had eaten our smoke bombs and started to have projectile sh..." Chogi started to mumble before Sasuke cut him off.

"How about we just stop talking about that!" Sasuke shouted, covering his face. "I swear you did that on purpose."

"If you have such a problem with us, then why don't you just stop following us." Kiba said, sticking up his nose.

"Because I live this way, stupid." Sasuke replied.

"It's so nice to see them all getting along so well." Rin said.

"You're crazy." Tenten said as she watched the boy's nearly start throwing punches.

"Not at all, they bump heads because they care." Rin said, sounding almost too honest.

"Like you and Luv..." Shirou started only to be hit on the back of the head by Rin's bookbag. Shirou was rubbing the top of his head, when he noticed a smell. "Rin, where you expecting anyone from the Hyūga Clan to come by today?"

"Hm?" She said, flicking on her eyes. She scanned the Uchiha Compound for what Shirou was smelling and a glare came over her face. "Of all the..." She said, speeding up and passing everyone, Shirou quickly joining her, leaving the others to try to catch up.

* * *

"Sorry, but you are going to have to leave." Nene said to the three Hyūgas that had come to her home. "Hanabi-chan isn't going with you."

Nene was a young woman of only nineteen years. Both her short hair and big eyes were a chocolately brown color and her had gentle features and slim figure made a rather attractive young lady. It was because of this and her playful personality that she had managed to get herself pregnant at the age of fourteen while working under an Uchiha Jounin Instructor as part of a quick response team, her specialty being healing.

To say that the Uchiha Elders were upset about the whole thing was an understatement.

It wasn't because of the moral implications of a thirty five year old man having sex with a fourteen year old girl, or that it was out of wedlock. Or the ethical problems of having an relationship with ones direct subordinate. But rather because the girl herself was an orphan or lesser blood, and because she was pregnant with an Uchiha seed.

The village didn't have many laws that they enforced over the Clans by the village, but there was one that had been put in place and that was consider absolute with no exception, the mother owned the baby. It was a law that came about after someone rapped a woman of a powerful bloodline, then claimed that she had consented and that he was entitled to the child. Sadly, the law wasn't passed before the Clan in question killed the girl in order to stop the child from ever being born. To prevent any such thing from happening again, the Clans had agreed, the mothers owned their children.

This left the Uchiha with three options, all of which they didn't like. They could leave the child to wonder around and have their bloodline running free. They could assassinate the girl before the baby could be born. Or they could let a lower born orphan into their clan.

Most of the Clan leaned towards the second option, but enough people were against it to force them into taking the third.

So Nene lived within the walls of the Uchiha Clan, acting as a nurse and babysitter. Of course, she wasn't seen as actually a part of the clan. The elders viewed her as a concubine. Not that anyone would say that to her face.

"This is a matter for the Hyūga Clan. It doesn't concern you." One of the three white eyed men said, his expression was the characteristic steel faced scowl of the clan. That didn't last long.

Nene bristled and walked straight up to him and started to poke him hard in the chest. "Not my concern! Now you listen here buster, Hanabi is one of my little girls, and I am not going to let her out of my sight for any of your silly Clan matters! Such naughty children! Coming here to my home and trying to order me around! Nene should take each one of you over the knee and give you a good hard spanking and make you sit in watch!"

The men were startled. It was not exactly something one is prepared for when they are interacting with someone ten years younger than them and nearly two heads shorter. They felt completely foolish as the little children pointed and giggled at them from the doorway of the house.

 **(...)**

* * *

 **I'm calling it quits on this story. Writing it for so many people has been rather stressful, and I don't do well with stress (PTSDs/Autism). So I'm going to put it up for adoption and wash my hands of it.**

 **Now is your chance, all you people who have been pretending they could do a better job than me. Put your words where your reviews are.**

 **Please keep the angry comments about this to a minimum. I'd like to just leave this story up rather than taking it down or having to change accounts due to too much hate.**


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